2023 Trend: Fighting Chronic Illness with Digital Healthcare

Kamryn Troyer on January 17, 2023

It’s no surprise “better health” is once again gracing the top three spots in 2023 New Year’s resolutions. According to a new Statista poll, 52 percent of Americans have pledged to exercise more, 50 percent to eat healthier, and 40 percent to lose weight. In a nation where seven out of every 10 deaths are caused by chronic illness, preventive wellness is a movement here to stay.

The question is, in a population accustomed to measuring convenience in milliseconds, how much time are we truly willing to devote to the health and wellness practices that will not only help us look and feel physically fitter, but also fight disease? Although real-time fitness tracker apps have granted us the initial leverage, they can’t fulfill a comprehensive snapshot of our internal health or alert us to a potential chronic illness.

What Causes Chronic Illness?

Chronic illnesses including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes are often caused by lifestyle behaviors such as poor nutrition, drug use and physical inactivity – all common outgrowths of a heavily digitized society. Over time, repeated unhealthy behaviors can induce a hyperinflammatory response within our bodies, often leading to chronically overactive immune systems. Consider when you have too much of an unhealthy substance, whether alcohol or a high-fat, high-sugar meal. When you overdrink or overeat, your body typically revs up to expel or rapidly process the substance. Similarly, your immune system can go into overdrive for seemingly miniscule risk behaviors when they are repeated on a daily basis, leading to chronic inflammation and, sometimes, chronic illness.

Despite these commonplace risk behaviors contributing to many types of short- and long-term disease, chronic illness can have many other causes. Autoimmune disorders, infections, injuries, and genetics all play pivotal roles in how our bodies function.

No matter the cause, there are many preventive methods to deter chronic illness. The latest: on-demand healthcare testing.

Digital Healthcare: A Preventive Solution

The first step to achieving any health-centered resolution: making the decision to learn more about your body. Unfortunately, that usually means you need to take a health exam. Fortunately, that’s where digital healthcare can save you the headache of a standard office visit.

Yet, following a rapid influx of telehealth and digital healthcare companies on the market, gaining consumer trust in non-traditional healthcare options has become a delicate process. How does one pinpoint the reputable healthcare brands that offer medically accurate health results? Then, if you do: Can doctor-grade standards truly fit within our fast-paced timelines, or will reliable mobile healthcare quickly add up to inconvenience?

A Three-Part Digital Approach: Convenience, Reliability, Speed

The role of mobile healthcare technology in curbing chronic illness is threefold. Yes, the ironic solution for many long-term symptoms spurred by digital reliance – fried food delivery, inactivity, and increased stress – is also digital.

When choosing a healthcare brand, these three tenants are imperative to an informed choice. First, digital healthcare platforms like Haled offer the most convenient alternative to time-consuming health appointments. Patients can click a few buttons on their personal device and have a health test delivered to their door. The world is shifting toward accessibility, and Haled believes healthcare should be at the top of the list.

Second, in-home health testing with Haled brings certified health examiners to patients’ homes for a mobile medical experience that doesn’t skimp on reliable testing methods. That means venipuncture is performed by a professional and lab results are always CLIA-accredited. Finally, fast-paced digital results deliver meaningful, numerical health information to every type of busy patient, including those coasting on the belief that they are “well enough” to skip regular health screenings.

Tapping into Digital Comfort Zones

By offering a simplified platform for preventive health and wellness, digital healthcare reopens the wellness narrative for those temporarily blinded by the standard, hours-long appointment checklist. Platforms like Haled choose to meet people in their comfort zones – phones, tablets, laptops, and living rooms – to offer an immediate first step in combating the types of chronic illness that begin and grow in those same zones.

When healthcare enters accessible zones to offer transparent, quantifiable results, “better health” resolutions step out from behind generalized buzzwords. Now you have real, individualized health data to focus on, so what are your next steps?

Healthcare, Simplified

With Haled, solutions-oriented software breaks healthcare down into simplified, digestible chunks so wellness is never overwhelming. Simply order your health test, schedule and complete your in-home appointment, receive CLIA-accredited results, and determine if you need further consultation. Haled also offers follow-up telehealth appointments or the option to send your results to a trusted physician to close the digital loop.

As health testing begins its long-awaited integration into the digital world, annual health resolutions are far more likely to meet their end-of-year checkmarks. With transformative platforms like Haled, more and more people gain the power to deter rising rates of chronic illness and contribute to a happier, more accessible healthcare future.