I shared this perspective yesterday at the Social Health Unconference in Philadelphia.
In the post-recession economy, consumers are living in an era of the new sustainability, looking for products and services from organizations that help them conserve resources, save me money, nurture creativity, and keep me healthy. In their report, Eyes Wide Open, Wallet Half Shut, Ogilvy surveyed consumers’ perceptions of their new lives shell-shocked by an economy that changed everything for them and their families.
The new household economics are driving a DIY economy. From DIY’ing home improvement and photo developing and sharing to self-booking travel with Expedia and trading shares via Schwab online, consumers have adopted, en masse, a self-service ethos.
As people do more DIY in life, they’re doing the same in health for themselves and those for whom they care — aging parents, sick mates, ailing kids. Both healthy and chronically ill people self-track their steps, their food intake, their clinical numbers like glucose and blood pressure. Some download mhealth apps to their smartphones to DIY health. Some people pay for personal emergency response systems for their parents to ensure their wellbeing at home. Others seek health information via online search and in social networks, on- and offline. Further up the social networking curve, Very Empowered Patients share their health data online in communities to CureTogether.
Household economics aren’t just about take-home pay: they’re about benefits and costs that translate across dimensions of our personal lives — increasingly, health.
Health Populi’s Hot Points: This is the new retail health. For many health consumers, the journey begins with the pharmacy: couponing prescription drugs and OTC product coupons clipped from the Sunday paper, more recently printed from online couponing sites and received from Groupon via mobile phones.
Well beyond health coupons, people are looking to connect with health care digitally. It’s about convenience, control, access, sustainability. Intuit found that not only do three-fourths of consumers in the U.S. want to engage electronically with their doctors but, if physicians don’t engage with them, one-half of patients will consider leaving their practices. This kind of voting with feet is another flavor of retail, DIY health.
DIY health is engaging. And it will continue to grow as U.S. health consumers take on more responsibility – financial and clinical – in their health. This is inevitable as costs continue to spiral out of control, and the economic recovery sputters.
Jane Sarasohn-Kahn is a health economist and management consultant that serves clients at the intersection of health and technology. 
Everything is about convenience and fastest way to get it now, totally agree with you!
With internet connection and google search to backup online prescription is much more convenient than going to a clinic.