The piece you’re about to read is from Klick Health’s Life (Sciences) After COVID-19 series, a collection of expert perspectives designed to inform and inspire the life sciences community for the coming changes and opportunities we anticipate as a result of this global health crisis.
The Insight
In the past few months, a plethora of new words, phrases, and concepts have slid into our national vocabulary. “Shelter at home,” “social distancing,” “frontline workers,” and “reopening strategies” have become common expressions at virtual happy hours. Personally, I’ve even talked about epidemiology models with my parents. No doubt, many of these phrases will become relics—language that when heard decades later will elicit this surreal moment in time. Others, like “essential healthcare workers,” “essential services,” and “essential businesses” may connote a more permanent shift in society’s collective consciousness.
For most, COVID-19 has been an all-too-powerful architect, drastically changing the shape of our days. This loss of control has wreaked havoc on our psyches and many are taking this slow-down to take stock of what’s essential in their lives.
What is essential quite clearly differs from person to person. Risk is a counterbalance by which we determine the essential. When risk is low, many “essentials" can find their way into your life. When it is high, the filter becomes a lot more sensitive. But risk, while enumerated, is also interpreted and therefore becomes a slippery and subjective concept.
When considering what is essential to you, your family, and your livelihood, it turns out that we all have to do our own math.
When considering what is essential to you, your family, and your livelihood, it turns out that we all have to do our own math.
The concepts of “essential” and “non-essential” in healthcare are like shifting sand in today’s pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a framework for provision of non-COVID-19 care. In this framework, they have put forth guidance based on likelihood of patient harm then stratified by degree of community transmission. Pediatric vaccines, changes in symptoms for chronic conditions, and most elective surgeries and procedures fall lower on the list. Those with underlying risk factors will have their care prioritized, and the CDC is recommending telemedicine wherever feasible, but just a few weeks ago, weren’t all those items considered essential?
The New York Times reports that visits to emergency rooms in the U.S. were down by 42% in April and 26% in the last week in May. That means incredible numbers of people are going without vital care—and some may be making the dire choice to die at home with family rather than risk dying alone in a hospital.
If what’s considered essential in healthcare is shifting under our feet, how do we change the way we educate and communicate?
Healthcare decision makers are determining what is considered essential and non-essential. How will that impact our future behaviors as life science leaders?
When we change the definition of “essential” in healthcare, will there be lasting repercussions? What “new essentials” will have staying power?
How can we move to an essential model of healthcare that is more just and unbiased—considering racial, socioeconomic, and geographic factors?
The Evidence
Regardless of how it looks in your particular locale, it is clear that as a society we are re-evaluating what “essential” means.
Consider the sea of change that has occurred. We have whittled our lives down to the three bottom rungs of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs because we are focused on the essentials and quickly abandoning the non-essentials. We are taking care of our person—with renewed interest in food, exercise, health, and safety.
Self-Care
We’re thinking about how to stay healthy. We’re working out at home to boost our immune systems. There’s been a run on Peloton bikes. We’re tending to our mental health. We have the time to be more mindful and companies like Headspace are supporting us with free content.
Shifting Expenditures
Uncertainty or loss of employment, which often includes loss of insurance, is driving many to tighten their spending habits, or actively begin saving more. Physicians are reporting loss of business and revenue because patients are choosing what is and what is not essential in the realm of health at this time. For many, this is because they aren’t covered or can’t afford it. We’ve slashed our spending in the majority of retail categories, but we’re spending more on groceries and at-home entertainment.
Connection
Overnight, we went from millions of possible connection points a day to nearly zero. The web-conferencing platform Zoom had 10 million meeting participants in December 2019 and 300 million in April 2020. No, having a great Zoom call isn’t the same as lingering over a coffee to catch up, but people instantaneously gravitated to it as a safe and convenient new way to connect. We’re seeing evidence of people reaching out to those they usually see, as well as less likely connections. Old college buddies, an aunt in a distant state—all of the sudden there is time and technology to enable these more distant connections and we’ve realized we’re hungry for it. Human connection is essential and actually plays a well-known role in physical and emotional health, and it’s also proving quite practical.
A New Essential Model
We hope you enjoyed reading this POV preview. Make sure to download to view the complete content.
Author
Laura Morrison
SVP, Brand Strategy
Laura brings with her 15 years in the healthcare communications industry. She is driven by unearthing customer insights, creative problem solving, defining brand positioning, identities, and storytelling. Laura has helped generate powerful and inspiring strategy for global and domestic brands and portfolios in the healthcare space, building brands across numerous therapeutic areas from pre-launch through to loss of exclusivity.
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