Digital Healthcare For Gen Z & Millennials

March 24, 2019 Design Technology
Accenture-2019-Digital-Health-Consumer-Survey

This weekend, I studied an interesting survey published by Accenture Consulting on the prediction of future healthcare for younger consumers. It’s called ‘Accenture 2019 Digital Health Consumer Survey’ and the respondents of this study were from the United States though it essentially provided some wonderful insights into the millennial and Gen Z’s behavioural patterns in general. A striking feature of this survey was the influence of future technology on a wide range of generations beginning with the 20s and the millennials who would become the most influential generation for healthcare consumerism. These are some of my notes from the study.

Distinctive User Groups

At the onset, I came across one of the most distinct categorizations of the user age groups within this survey. The study has been fairly distributed among all classes of consumers including even the generation of consumers who were born in the late 20s. The list of the user group is comprehensive as noted below.

  • Gen Z (born 1997 onward)
  • Millennials (born 1981 to 1996)
  • Gen X (born 1965 to 1980)
  • Baby Boomers (born 1946 to 1964)
  • Silent Generation (born 1928 to 1945)

Prominent Healthcare Insights

Traditional / Non-Traditional Healthcare – doctors, healthcare professionals, clinics, medical centres and doctor’s offices are some of the established types of traditional healthcare services. In contrast, walk-in or retail clinics, outpatient surgery hospitals, virtual health (via the phone, on video or apps), on-demand services or digital therapeutics are some examples of non-traditional healthcare services. [1]

  • Younger consumers are moving away from traditional channels and adopting technology and non-traditional healthcare.
  • The loyalty of younger generation patients is no longer assured, and the providers who heed to the changing dynamics of the consumers would be strongly positioned.
  • Gen Z and Millennials are less likely to have a primary care physician (PCP) compared to Gen X, baby boomers and the silent generation.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”” class=”” cite=”” link=”” color=””]Gen Z is the most likely generation to seek out wellness practices (e.g. yoga, acupuncture) beyond Western medicine. With millennials projected to become the largest generation in 2019, this generation holds the most power to influence future healthcare models.[/perfectpullquote]

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“Denzil Washington” in ‘Badla’?

March 11, 2019 Movies
Badla - Movie Review Paper Cutting

Be honest now — wouldn’t you be hysterical hearing the news that the ‘Baadshaah of Bollywood’ is paired with a Hollywood legend on a Bollywood movie, and to watch these stalwarts together on the silver screen, wouldn’t that be amazing? A freaking, Hindi language movie. The moment I read “Denzil Washington” in the cast of a review of Badla by a prominent national newspaper and a renowned film critic, my eyes almost popped out on the keyboard and nearly got squeezed between my dancing fingers. I brought myself back to my sense, and read the names once again. Both, Amitabh Bachchan and Denzel Washington are defining legends of our time’s all credit to their innate competencies, it’s needless to judge that both have garnered a cult following of their own in their respective realms and both have tons of awards to their name — an Oscar, nonetheless, for Washington. Crime & suspense thrillers are my personal favourites, and Badla seemed like one such taut suspense thriller if the Internet was supposed to be believed. This latest offering from Sujoy Ghosh has gained some rave reviews from critics as well, and I am particularly fond of his other creative craftiness such as Jhankaar Beats (2003) and Kahaani (2003), and the Radhika Apte starring short film Ahalya which was truly mesmerising. That Ghosh managed a casting coup of sorts by effecting a collaboration between two gigantic doyens in a Hindi cinematic experience was mind-boggling to read. In fact, it was so mind-boggling, that I didn’t trust the news in the first place, although, Ben Kingsley has acted opposite Amitabh Bachchan in Teen Patti (2010).

So then I checked IMDB, skillfully perused the Wikipedia page of the movie, and it wasn’t long before the shiny tiny bulb in my brain finally glimmered brightly. The actor in question was Denzil Smith, a distinguished Indian stage actor and a producer, not the renowned American legend I had truthfully imagined. No regrets, except, what seemed like a dream-come-true cinematic experience was, in fact, one hell of a typographical error, and faux pas that not only sent me on a wild goose chase, besides smashing my ambition of ever feeling the pride of enjoying Denzel Washington in a Hindi movie on a big screen. But who’s to know the future? Eventually, it did bring me back to my filmy duniya that’s Bollywood!

Consultant Roles, Engagements, Et Al

March 7, 2019 General
Consultant and Consultancy

Being an independent consultant isn’t easy, to start with. At the onset, one is answerable to several corporate structures, and being an SME conclusively makes you lonely within a team. It’s obvious, therefore, that the role of a consultant is looked upon with a lot of scepticism, with no less than the legendary Steve Jobs who had his personal take on the topic of consulting.

For some vague reasons, consultants have garnered a notorious reputation for themselves for the misplaced belief in the industry that they do not focus on the outcomes and for “not owning the results”, and costing dollars to the companies for nothing. Quite evidently, that’s not true. While there cannot be any debate on the role & responsibilities of an internal consultant (full-time hire) which is well-defined and aligned with the company’s overarching vision it’s the vast majority of the external consultants working on contracts that come under heavy criticism and undue scrutiny. It isn’t about seeking tangible outcomes alone, but the constraints of budget and time sometimes render the viable goals of the engagement (yes, it’s treated as an “engagement”, short-term or long-term, not a project) out of reach. Consultants, therefore, favour tasks that they feel would clearly deliver the value proposition for the company in the long run. On the other side, companies hire external consultants with the sole purpose of squeezing multiple outcomes in a limited timeframe, expect that consultant deliver practically on the vision which has been laid out, and more so, without justifying the value of the process and the investment in human resources. While the expectation is not completely misplaced, a third-party consultant comes with a fresh pair of eyes and is able to weed out insufficient and incoherent tasks which may not deliver the outcomes the company is striving to achieve. Hence, there might be a review of the processes and team structure to bring the efficiency back. Moreover, outcomes are as achievable and as valuable as the process would be.

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(Another) Upcoming Crazy Weather System

February 24, 2019 Happenings

Brace yourself, Ontarians, for one last time! Because hopefully, this could be the last crazy weather system before the spring makes its way into Toronto. Personally, just when I thought the mercury was rising, the Canada Geese have arrived and the snow was thawing, unfortunately, there’s more of it coming shortly. If one was looking for surprises in Canada, they can be rest assured, the weather won’t disappoint and would deliver on its promises pronto!

So, Environment Canada has issued an alert beginning Sunday afternoon until Monday, for a “major wind storm” this time that will sweep through most of Southern Ontario.

Weather System Alert - Southern Ontario

The winter this year has been especially onerous, over the past few days the temperatures have swung up and down like a yo-yo, not to mention there was a storm just a few weeks ago dumping tons of snow. And if you all thought all that was a result of a dreaded global phenomenon called ‘climate change’, not only are you dead right but you are free to panic as well, according to this insightful and scary article.

Not to digress from the topic, but there’s no doubt in my mind that winds gusting at 120 km/h seem likely to take some serious toll on the city damaging precious life & property. It’s a weekend too so I just hope that this oncoming dreaded weather system passes on smoothly giving the residents some much-needed breathing space from its brutality. The crazy weather, with a looming threat of power outages and low visibility, means many in the affected neighbourhoods would be sadly confined yet again to the safety of their homes. For those courageous adventurers, who would still dare to venture out and risk everything despite the clear warnings, I can only say — stay safe, stay alert, and if possible, stay indoors.

Happy 64th Birthday, Steve Jobs!

February 24, 2019 Quotes

At Apple, we come at everything asking, ‘How easy is this going to be for the user? How great it is going to be for the user?’ After that, it’s like at Pixar. Everyone in Hollywood says the key to good animated movies is story, story, story. But when it really gets down to it, when the story isn’t working, they will not stop production and spend more money and get the story right. That’s what I see about the software business. Everybody says, ‘Oh, the user is the most important thing’ but nobody else really does it.

CNN Money/Fortune, 21 February 2005