Health and wellness have never been the priority of many people. We are often reckless when it comes to our own health and wellness. Despite knowing why living a healthy lifestyle matters, we never really put much effort into staying healthy and fit unless we face a medical emergency. We take our health for granted while trying to achieve our personal goals.
Many people don’t care about investing in preventive health measures. Some would only change their lifestyle after they get sick or once a family member suffers. But when COVID-19 came sweeping across the globe, everything changed.
The crisis forced us to change our lifestyle, work habits, and even the way we address health and wellness. We now focus on preventive healthcare in hopes of dodging the virus. Suddenly, everyone is taking health and wellness seriously.
With the crisis and all, the health and wellness landscape changed dramatically. Businesses under this industry needed to move fast to keep up with the increasing demand for better, faster, and more reliable healthcare. The following shows just how much the industry changed in the middle of the crisis.
Home Fitness Reinvented
At first, health and wellness centers shut down to curb the spread of the virus. This made people rethink their active lifestyle. Since exercising outdoors and engaging in physical activities outside can be a health risk, more people decided to bring fitness home.
Some switched to yoga and are now having regular yoga sessions at home. Others went on improving their house by installing a home gym. This meant those selling home gym equipment had to work double to provide consumers with their much-needed exercise equipment.
Since more people are now exercising at home, health and wellness professionals need to find ways to reach their audiences who are sheltering in place. So, they started improving their marketing by advertising online, especially on social media. Others resorted to turning their gym memberships to online subscriptions to ensure their customers still learn the right ways of exercising while staying at home.
Demand for In-home Care
More people would instead address their health issues at home. They are afraid to visit healthcare professionals for fear of being exposed to the virus in clinics and hospitals. So, they are now opting for in-home care.
In-home care is any professional home care service provided to individuals wanting and needing healthcare assistance from their homes. This can be people who require treatment, rehabilitation, or even hospice care. Now, more than ever, patients and family caregivers are choosing in-home care in hopes of reducing their loved one’s risk.
For instance, many families decided to pull senior loved ones out of assisted living facilities. This was after many seniors and healthcare professionals died because of COVID-19. They would instead take care of their senior loved ones and take extra precautionary measures to provide for their growing needs at home by themselves.
So, healthcare providers and their team had to think of other ways to provide in-home care to patients with unique healthcare needs. Now, more professionals are catering to patients in their own residences. There has been an increased demand for home visits to people who are sick and aging in place.
Accelerated Growth in Telemedicine
The military, along with the space tech sectors, have been using telemedicine since the 1960s. But it has only been more than a decade when regular consumers started demanding such services. But because of the pandemic, telemedicine became the reality of today’s healthcare instead of being the predicted future of healthcare.
Virtual care enabled people sheltering to save money while getting expert advice from their preferred healthcare providers. They no longer need to travel to see their doctor and ask for a consult. They can have access to specialists without leaving their homes.
Telemedicine also helps in reducing one’s risk of exposure to other sick people. We know that the doctor’s clinic and hospitals, in particular, are filled with patients with different types of medical conditions. Since you are staying at home while talking to a healthcare provider, you won’t be exposed to other patients who have contagious diseases like the COVID-19.
One can also reduce the need to wait for up to hours just to see the right healthcare provider. Telemedicine technology reduces the wait time since they are scheduling patients from home. Even if you have to wait for a bit, you are at the comforts of your home, giving them lots of distractions and entertainment.
The health and wellness landscape made many changes to cater to consumers’ growing needs and demands. Thanks to the pandemic, telemedicine, in-home care, and home-fitness became more prominent. We can only expect more changes to occur as we thread along with the crisis.