Dr. Evan Zhao is an expert in biotechnology. He cofounded and is CEO of Revelaa wellness company that discovers new molecules.
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In my view, there has never been a more prosperous and forward-looking global society. As people live longer in better socioeconomic environments, their eyes will inevitably turn towards wellness and longevity. Our improvements in technology have already revolutionized practically every industry, but we’re just starting to see the beginning of what it can do for wellness. Here are some trends I predict when it comes to the intersection of technology and wellness.
Software-Enabled Wellness
We can start with the obvious. Software is eating the wellness industry. The first frontier for this was easy access. With services like online marketplaces, delivery platforms and telehealth, it’s never been easier to get wellness products that can make a big impact. However, this easy access can be a dangerous game, and FDA-approved drugs should be closely monitored for over-prescription.
I see the next frontier for software in wellness as personalization. With more accurate data, consumers should be able to get significantly more personalized treatments and wellness routines. The current progress for this idea primarily relies on surveys, and we will see the next wave for this sector drastically improve through the incorporation of biomarker measurements and real-user data.
Of course, you can’t mention software these days without talking about artificial intelligence (AI). AI, when used for product discovery, is the ultimate pattern recognition machine, able to predict new products that we wouldn’t dream about. AI, when used as a product, can range from a substitute for a therapist to the ultimate evolution of personalized wellness (think Baymax from Big Hero Six). No matter the application, AI will be where sci-fi wellness companies thrive.
Hardware-Enabled Wellness
Phones are now walking TVs, portable music players and supercomputers. We’ve only begun to see how these improvements in hardware can impact wellness. The first initial look is community exercise products (see Peloton), which utilize machines to connect people in their own homes.
I think the next frontiers for hardware in wellness will be in the diagnostics space. The biggest problem in wellness now is imperfect data, and cheaper diagnostics linked with better tracking systems can enable significantly better readings on how different supplements are affecting people. These cheaper diagnostics have been on full display during the Covid-19 pandemic, and we’ll only get better at measuring biomarkers like protein, RNA and small molecules.
Finally, I also predict temporal resolution for certain biometrics integrating into the future of wellness. We’ve already seen people get live readings of metrics like their heart rates from Apple watches and Fitbits, but we still haven’t seen this all linked together with what they eat and their other activities.
Biotechnology-Enabled Wellness
As much as the wonders of electrical and computer engineering have revolutionized the consumer, our pharmaceutical capabilities have rapidly increased in the past 30 years. Interestingly, the recent consumer inclination for natural supplements and cosmetics ingredients is slowly being overturned, so we should expect a new wave of better-engineered and intentionally discovered products. We should see companies shift some focus away from marketing towards research and development to take advantage of some of the newer modalities for wellness.
These new modalities are at the center of this biotechnology wellness revolution. As an area I specialize in, if we expand the small molecule space to all possible molecules, we have billions of possible solutions to pick from. In addition, protein, peptide and RNA solutions for wellness are quickly being developed. These improvements should be implemented into wellness routines in the next twenty years.
Finally, the microbiome and engineered microbes are great tools for improving wellness. Although we have yet to crack the exact codes of interactions between these microbes and their hosts (us), over the next ten years, more and more of this should be elucidated. With this new knowledge, we can start to engineer consumers’ microbiomes to help people with many different wellness issues.
Closed-Loop Wellness
With all these new technological developments, it’s easy to overlook perhaps the most important technology-enabled aspect for wellness—it’s incredibly easy to talk to customers and people. We can collect data and validate ideas in a matter of minutes, and those pigeons don’t have to work so hard. With more listening and less selling, companies are focusing on building the best possible products over the next decade. People can start to build truly amazing brands around truly amazing products. The future for both the wellness industry and also individual wellness is looking bright.
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