We care about what you care about.

Digital Wellness RevolutionLianne Clarke, Vice President, Practice Lead, Disability, Health & WellnessCowan Insurance Group

Explosion of Health and Wellbeing Technology

• In 2018, there were over 318,000

mobile health apps worldwide—

double that of 2015

• More than 200 apps added daily

33% of Canadians have a mobile

health app on their phone 1

1. Canada Health Info Way 2017

2

What Does This Mean for Employers?

Dialogue

Optimity

Phzio

Plasticity

Snapclarity

Praktice Health

Beacon

CarePath

3

Akira

Burnalong

EQCare

Core Health

Virgin Pulse

FlourishIQ

Sprout

Vitality

Calm

Buddify

Your Wellness Partner

Tele-psychiatry

Fitbit

Trainer-plus

Decadoo

Best Life Rewarded

Whisker Docs

Novus Health

Best Doctors

Happify

i-Volve

Headspace

LifeSpeak

Why Digital Health and Wellness?

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There are an estimated

three billion smartphone

users worldwide.

In Canada:

• Approximately 70% of us

own smartphones

• Nearly 75% of us spend at least 3 to

4 hours a day online; more than 1 in

10 spend over 8 hours a day online 2

• Using mobile devices more often to

access the internet, led by Boomers

(55+) showing largest growth—from

24% in 2015, to 57% in 2019 32. 2019 Canada’s Internet Factbook by the Canadian Internet Registration

3. (Future of Connected Healthcare, CMA, Aug 2019)

Benefits of Digital Health and Wellness

Enables people to better manage their

health and wellness from anywhere:

• Reduces emergency and hospital visits

• Reduces time away from work

• Improves one’s ability to manage and

monitor chronic disease

• Offers the ability to personalize wellbeing

• Can be scaled according to need

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Digital Wellbeing Platforms

• A hub for all wellness programs

• Personalized programming and assessments

• Integration of health and fitness tracking devices

• Gamification

• Rewards with options to integrate with employee

benefit program

- Virgin Pulse

- Best Life Rewarded

- Sprout

- Vitality

- Decadoo

- Optimity

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Virtual Healthcare: Telemedicine

• Remote delivery of healthcare services via technology: text, video, phone

• Multidisciplinary healthcare team: nurse practitioners, doctors, psychologists

• Continuity of care

• Diagnose, prescribe, refer, book tests

• 24/7 from anywhere in the world

• Per employee per month, or direct to consumer pricing options

• 1% of Canadians, and 9% of Canadian employers currently

use or offer Virtual Healthcare

- Akira

- Dialogue

- EQ Care

- Maple

- Medisys

- Medcan

- Teledoc

7

“Virtual” Newcomers

Newcomers

• Phzio - Physiotherapy

• Burnalong - Fitness

• WhiskerDocs - Veterinary services

Hybrids

• EFAP (Homewood Health, Lifeworks

by MS, HumanaCare, ComPsych)

• Novus Health (Cowan Health)

Mental Health

Mindfulness and meditation are fastest growing trends

• Apple

- Named Mental Wellness/Mindfulness apps the #1 App Trend of 2018

• Headspace

- 35 millions users in 190 countries

• CAREpath

- Your Wellness Partner

• Beacon

- Online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

• Welltrack

• Snapclarity

• Telepsychiatry

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How Do You Decide?

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Remember the Basics

Best practice steps to creating a culture of

health and wellbeing:

• Senior leadership support – budget, resources, time

• Create a wellness team

• Collect and assess your data – ask your employees

• Create a plan – mission, vision, SMART goals

• Communicate, communicate, communicate

• Implement, measure, refine

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But—Is Digital Wellness an Oxymoron?

• World Happiness Report (2018) presented a world

happiness score of 5/10

- New research on how constant digital connection is

creating anxiety and depression epidemic

• Smartphone and internet addiction “JCDR” study

on high school students found 31% show mobile

phone dependence

• Studies found negative physical and psychological

effects of excessive use of mobile phones

- Linked to anxiety, sleep disorders, eye strain, “tech neck”

• Nomophobia

- While not yet a DSM-5 diagnosis, increasingly recognized

by psychiatry as a type of behavioural addiction, or

anxiety disorder12

A Revolution or Evolution?

Technology offers new opportunities to

improve people’s health and wellbeing

BUT

It’s not a silver bullet