Balazs Fonagy
Chief Strategist
Whitepaper: The power of behavioral science in health products
Revolutionizing preventive healthcare
Anett A. Toth
Product Strategist
Bence Lukacs
Experience Design Lead
13 August, 2023
In an era where healthcare costs are skyrocketing, and preventable diseases continue to plague populations, the need for a paradigm shift is more evident than ever. While healthcare budgets are on the rise, the industry needs to learn into how to allocate prevention budgets to optimise for the best return.
Leading European economies allocate 11-12% of their GDP to healthcare, while the US dedicates almost 20%—nearly double the average among high-income nations. Despite this substantial investments, only meager proportions - around 3.4-3.5% - of healthcare spending are directed towards prevention, primarily screening. While these checks are crucial, they are rather costly for the system to keep up.
Meantime, only a fraction of spending supports promoting health-conscious behaviors. This stands in stark contrast with evidence-based findings attributing 35% to 50% of premature deaths to behavioral factors in the US and 50% in Europe.
The conclusion is compelling: fostering healthier habits and decisions yields substantial positive impacts, far outweighing associated costs — a true goldmine for extending both lifespan and health span.
Doubling down on behavioural intervention can help to balance prevention focused health spendings - this area is often overlooked, but its ROI can not only be measured in terms of costs, but in personal happiness too. Digital healthcare prodcuts are essential in supporting this goal by promoting health-conscious behavior, and educating and empowering people to take care of their own and future generations’ health.
Change behaviors to change lives
In recent years, Supercharge’s design team has been helping healthcare experts to turn their vision of the future into digital healthcare products that change lives. Our findings prove that good health practitioners alone are often not enough to introduce radical changes to an individual’s health regimen.
They can point out the path, but it’s the patient who has to walk it. In both prevention and treatment, results are profoundly affected by patient behavior. This is especially true as the focus shifts from treatment to prevention, and boundaries between well-being, fitness, and healthcare become ever more blurred.
We predict that in the coming decade, many of the most impactful healthcare innovations will center on forming healthier behaviors. This trend prompted us to create a report on the topic of influencing behavior through digital healthcare products. While we provide a glimpse into the results of behavioral science, ultimately we wanted to give you a collection of practical techniques that you can apply to help users make better choices and adopt healthier habits.
Our report on influencing behavior through digital healthcare innovation covers 3 interconnected topics: decision-making, habit-forming and motivation
Delivering these innovations at scale and with low costs requires digital healthcare solutions with automated experiences and low-touch human involvement.
Do you want to dig deeper?
Our report aims to inspire you and offer an in-depth understanding of how behavioral science can boost your digital healthcare product to shape healthier habits and enhance the quality of lives. This knowledge will guide your thoughts on the product's future, aid in its roadmap creation, and foster more meaningful dialogues with your product designers.
Learn about behavior design techniques to boost your digital health product! Download the full whitepaper
The form is loading
