Not Your Everyday Hospital: How Care Is Moving to Where You Already Are (#64)

Welcome to the weekly update of the Healthusiasm Podcast. My name is Christophe Jauquet, Health Innovation Expert, author and Professional Keynote Speaker. And in this weekly updates, which actually is a new format, I pick a couple of signals from the world around us and unpack what it means for the future of health. And I do this with my AI friend, my Healthusiasm GPT, Thalia Muses, the anagram of the word Healthusiasm and the embodied AI version of all my Healthusiasm intelligence.

How are we doing, Thalia? I'm feeling quite excellent. No waiting room needed. And I'm ready to unpack those signals with you.

After all, we don't just observe the future of health, we make it a bit more entertaining along the way. That's what we will try to do. And this week's signal is about hospitals that are being redesigned. Now I have a quick question for you.

What was the best customer experience of your life, Thalia? Well, if I had a life, it would be that moment when a page loads instantly. Pure magic. Just like a great hospital experience should feel.

Seamless, no loading bar, and definitely no 20-minute hold music. Interesting. Now, if I would ask that to a human being, they would probably say maybe the coffee shop where the barista already starts your order when you walk in or remembers your name. Maybe it's the airline app that gets you from booking to boarding gate without ever asking you to print anything, or the streaming service that already suggests to watch something that you might definitely like.

And there's a whole business around this, there's a whole vocabulary for this. It's called frictionless, personalized, always on, everything related to customer experience. And in my first book, Healthusiasm, I was talking a lot about experiences and how people have certain expectations, not only outside of healthcare, but even more so in healthcare. Definitely when they are entering a hospital, right?

Exactly. And that's the funny twist. We expect the hospital to save lives, but we're also thinking, could it save me from that clunky old Chevian process? Health is becoming less of a chore and more of a choice.

Yeah, maybe. And that's definitely something to think about. But if we enter a hospital still today, it is still an entirely different planet. I mean, we it start already starts by having to sit in a waiting room.

A waiting room. I don't know, is there any other business that uses the word waiting room? Honestly, no other business gets away with that. Imagine a coffee shop with a waiting room for lattes.

People would riot. Healthcare's next frontier might just be turning that waiting room into a welcoming room. Frictionless, and maybe with better coffee too. A welcoming room.

And obviously, a hospital has a lot on it on their mind. It's not really their fault. You could say that they are solving harder problems like saving lives and treating cancer, operating hearts, whatsoever, but that is quietly changing. And in this week's episode, I will take you to five different countries, Thalia, where we will be talking about hospital builders that have started doing something they've never seriously done before.

I'm ready, and I'm guessing this will be less about waiting rooms and more about waiting on the next breakthrough. Let's see where these hospitals are hiding their inner coffee shop. Yeah. Well, let's start not in a hospital, but in your most intimate place, your home.

Because two weeks ago, the FDA approved something called TytoCare ENT Suite. It is a small device, a smartphone attached. It's AI powered. And so you could imagine if it if you're at home and it's 11 at night, your child has an earache, it's crying, pulling at her ear.

You know, the kind of moment every parent recognizes in two seconds flat, maybe you don't recognize that feeling, Thalia. You're right. No offspring for me unless you count software updates. I can definitely imagine that at 11 p.

m. you'd want something smarter than a flashlight and a worried Google search. Exactly, because in the old world and very often still today, you got two options. You wait until the morning and pray for an appointment, or you drive to an emergency room and sit there for three hours with a hot, miserable child on your lap who the next day needs to go to school.

But in that new world, you reach for the device, you look into your child's ear, and the AI analyzes the eardrum immediately. It tells you whether there's bulgeon, the key sign of acute middle ear infection. And so a telepediatrician is one tap away if needed, so if it's having actually a bulgeon. And why is this so special?

It's because this is the first time that the FDA has actually approved an at-home AI exam category for ear, nose, and throat. And it definitely won't be the last because the cardiac suite is in the pipeline. The skin suite is coming, and the home is becoming a serious triage point, not a substitute for the hospital, but a consumer great front door to the hospital. How about it?

That's the shift, isn't it? Health is no longer waiting politely inside the hospital. It's moving into your home, your nightstand drawer, and soon, who knows, maybe even your smart fridge. Health just got a front door key.

Yes. And now from the front door from your own house into your morning routine when you just left the house. Also, a few weeks ago in New Jersey, there is a hospital called Hackensack Meridian. Well, they opened a$200 million health and wellness center.

Now I'll let you guess, Thalia. What could this hospital have done that is so special? Let me guess. They didn't just build it where you'd never go, they probably put it where people already are.

Like a commuter hub. Am I close or should I get a second opinion from a passing train? I think you're 100% right. And of course, you know all about this, having all the health easy and intelligence.

But yes, this hospital was built in the Metro Park Stop. It's the New Jersey Transit's second busiest train station. It's the Amtrak hub. There's about 30,000 commuters every day that walk through that station.

And that hospital in that station built the$200 million hospital, it's full service. It has primary care, it has urgent care, it has advanced imaging, surgical specialties, pharmacy, physical therapy, all of that. And the simple idea behind this is this you are already there every morning, every evening. So why should you go to a doctor to do a you know have to do a separate trip, if you will, to go to that doctor?

Well, actually you're passing through that station every day and there is a doctor there. It's so obvious once you hear it, right? It's like healthcare finally realized that the best place to meet people is where they already are. So now your morning commute might come with a side of health check.

Just don't confuse the pharmacist with your barista. Yeah, maybe you should, but if you're not awake, you might be doing that. Let's move further. Let's travel to India because with there we saw something similar happening in Hyderabad in India, because Apollo hospitals just opened their 76th hospital, and it is a 400-bed facility which is completely tech enabled, AI integrated, and they call it the hospital of the future.

Which is a catchy name that many might use that word, but it's actually pretty cool, and it's not for the name because the real design move is where they put it. Where did they put this hospital? I'm going to guess they skipped the empty lot on the outskirts of town. They probably dropped it right where the action is, like in the middle of a business district.

So your lunch break can double as your checkup. Am I close? You're spot on. Apollo didn't pick the cheapest land in the city, they build it inside the financial district among the bankers, the traders, and the engineers.

So they don't just put up a building, they linked it to Apollo 24-7, which is their digital health app, which has about 5 million monthly users, and they linked it to their pharmacy chain, which has over a hundred stores. So what they did is they really built the hospital in the middle of the financial district, linked it to their app, linked it to their pharmacy, all in one stack, one identity, one record. That's where it becomes powerful, right? It's not just a hospital now, it's an ecosystem.

Your health moves with you. From a tap on your phone in the morning to a checkup at lunch, and your pharmacy order in the evening. It's like they borrowed a page from the world of seamless tech platforms. Just this time, the product is your well-being.

Exactly. And who doesn't want that? Now from India, we're going to New Cairo. Last week, the Egyptian property developer called Upwhite announced a partnership with Vezeeta, which is Egypt's largest digital health platform.

Do you know it? I'm familiar. Vezeeta has been making healthcare as easy as ordering takeout. So I'm guessing they're not just putting a clinic on the corner.

They're probably weaving it right into where people live, making going to the doctor as easy as heading to the lobby. Exactly. And so what do you have indeed when you have a property developer with a digital health platform collaborating? Well, they are building a fully integrated medical complex inside a flagship mixed-use residential project.

So you have a project where people will be living, and inside that project they will have a fully integrated medical complex. The same place you sleep, the same place you eat dinner with your family, the same place where the gym is, the same place where the swimming pool and the concierge are. Well, all of these are now closed by the hospital itself. And so the hospital is now one of the amenities of that complex, like the playground or like the rooftop cafe, if you will.

So health is basically moving in with you. It's no longer that place you drive to when things go wrong. It's part of the home package. It's like your building's gym, but instead of lifting weights, you're lifting your health game.

And now we go to China. There's an island called Hainan, and on that island, there's a hospital that's opened in March that is so different in design it doesn't quite behave like a hospital at all. It's called the Boao Super AI Hospital. I'll repeat that, the Buper AI Hospital.

Have you heard of it? Well, I haven't booked an AI holiday yet, but it sounds like this is where the hospital meets sci-fi. Let me guess. AI is doing the heavy lifting, and patients are flying in for that.

AI is built into the foundation of that hospital. Intelligence agents, they reach each of they read each patient's case, and then they scan treatments anywhere on the planet, and they look for the best match. Twenty-four hours a day, those agents track new pharmaceutical developments globally. And the moment that something better becomes available, they know.

And as you said, people are flying to Hainan to be matched by AI to the best treatments on the planet. That's the whole proposition. So the hospital isn't just a building anymore, it's basically a global medical search engine. You don't just get a doctor, you get the best possible match, like a dating app.

But instead of a soulmate, it's your perfect treatment. Healthcare just went full-on matchmaking. It's a good one. But let's look at what would just happen.

We looked at five signals. We looked at a signal at home, we looked at the signal in the commute, in the train station, we looked at the workplace, the financial district, we looked at the building in Cairo, and we looked at the destination where people go to be matched by AI. Five places, five different distances from a person's body, but the same direction, the same logic showing up everywhere. Hospitals are finally being designed around the customer.

It's not just a building you go to, it's shifting to fit into your life, your home, your commute, your work, even your neighborhood. So the shift is clear. Healthcare is going from somewhere you go to something that fits where you already are. Exactly.

The old model of the 20th century, where the hospital was a place you went to, a building you walked into when you had no choice, a building which is big, monolithic, intimidating, the opposite of design for you. Well, that model is quietly ending. So watch what each of these signals have borrowed. Let's go through them.

We have TytoCare that borrowed something from the consumer electronics, the smartphone attached device, designed for one-handed use by a tired patient in a dim bedroom at 11 pm for your child. We have Hackensack Meridian borrowed something from retail because they show up where the customer already is. They don't make them come to you. Then we have Apollo in India who borrowed something from technology platforms, the integrated stack, the app, the building, the pharmacy, the operating as one ecosystem.

And then we have Vezeeta and Upwhite in Cairo who borrowed something from luxury real estate, the amenity model. Make health a feature of the building itself. And then finally in China, we had Buahua, the super AI hospital, who borrowed something from the internet search, but for medicine. AI that scans the word for the best possible match.

So we have different patterns, but exactly the same project. Healthcare is finally adopting the design language of every consumer experience outside of healthcare. Do you have a simpler way of saying it or explaining it to the listener? The hospital wants to feel less like a hospital and more like the rest of your life.

It's not just about fixing what's wrong, it's about fitting into your day. Just like your favorite coffee shop, your streaming service, or your smartphone. And that's exactly what I've called the consumerization of health or consumer-driven health. For decades this was a phrase.

Now it's a building decision, it's a regulatory decision, it's a real estate decision. But there's actually a deeper layer to it. It's also a real expression of what I've called the transformation economy. You've read the book, right, Thalia?

I've absorbed it all. No bookmarks need it. The transformation economy is all about how we've moved from selling products to selling experiences and now selling personal transformations. It's not just about getting better, it's about becoming a better version of yourself, right?

Indeed. And if we look at hospitals, hospitals always promised transformations from sick to healthy, from healthy to happy. That was kind of like the pitch. But for decades, they delivered it as an industrial product.

Take it or leave it, wait in the corridor, fill in the form, and that is basically no longer enough because the customer of healthcare today, the modern consumer-driven health citizen, well, it has been trained by every other industry to expect something better. They've been Starbucks', they've been Amazon's, they've been Airbnb'd, and they expect that exact same expectation or experience in the hospital. So, what does it really mean for the listener who's running an organization, let's say a wellness clinic or a clinic or a hospital?

What are the things that they need to start with? First, they need to rethink location. It's not just where can we build, but where do people live their lives. Second, the value moves from just having a building to creating a seamless experience, integrating with daily routines.

And third, they should expect that once you give people a taste of convenience, they'll want more. Health is becoming part of everyday life, not an exception. Indeed, and this isn't actually a forecast. It's an extrapolation of what is happening already.

The signals are already in the ground. Here's where it leaves us. For a long time, hospitals were the place that consumer experiences forgot. There was no experience or enjoyable experience in a hospital.

And that is quietly ending now. The hospital is finally being designed around your home, your commute, your workplace, your building, your journey. It's five signals, five distances, one movement. This is what we all talked about today.

Healthcare is no longer somewhere you go, it's something that fits into where you already are. And I think we discussed that last week, right, Thalia? Exactly. Last week we set the boundaries between healthcare, wellness, and everyday life are blurring.

Now we see it in action. So I'll leave you and your listeners with a question. If your organization serves people, how can you fit into their everyday journey? Because that's where health is going.

That's the truth. The next decade of healthcare will not be designed by hospitals alone, it will be designed by people who learned consumer experiences somewhere else and brought it insight. The hospital is finally getting redesigned because it is a Healthusiasm world, and the boundaries between healthcare, wellness, and consumer industries are blurring. Thank you for listening.

See you next week for some more Healthusiasm. Ciao. And remember, whether it's a hospital or your favorite coffee shop, a little design and a lot of empathy go a long way. Until next time, we'll be right here fitting into your day.