Efforts and Opportunities to Achieve Integral Health

Everyone is talking – and writing – about “future-ready” services regarding health and wellness, mixed with technology. We have welcomed and used fast and radical innovations as if they were the key to solving all our problems: greater life expectancy, fewer infections, better quality of life, safer environments, new medications. Nonetheless, we have forgotten a basic tenet  of technology in our lives: it is a tool, not a universal remedy.

Many companies, I fear, are willing to develop digital environments and forget about helping their own people evolve as professionals and innovators. Computers, cellphones and the internet itself did not appear out of nowhere. There were necessities behind – and before – them. We will get to new solutions when listening to what patients and clients need. 

Should we get them a state-of-the-art app for mobile devices? Sure, but let’s take a moment to think about what we are going to offer. What is different today?

Something that has, indeed, changed since the pandemic is the approach we take toward health. We learned, the hard way, that we are not healthy when we attack an infection or a disease. Instead, we are healthy when we take care of our minds and bodies on a regular basis, even before getting sick. So, one may wonder, what does this have to do with being ready for the future?

Well, only if we understand the times we live in, and more importantly, the world in which we want to live, we will get to effective alternatives. Any way we want to look at it, all solutions must be holistic. That is to say, integral. Just as the new approach I mentioned. 

The idea of integral health is a concept where various determinants are considered: biological, economic, or psychosocial, among others. Health, then, is conceived in broader terms, not only as a medical treatment for late stages of a disease. In this way, we all have a responsibility: health institutions, schools, researchers from different areas, and of course, society itself.

We are no longer depending on what others do; we are active parts of our own lives. Our habits and way of living have a direct impact on how healthy we are. It is on us to exercise regularly, to eat better foods, and avoid frequent consumption of alcohol and tobacco, for example. 

So, what do other actors have to implement on their side?

Companies, such as Bupa, have a great responsibility as well. As many people might know, we have always focused on health. In Mexico, we started as an international medical insurance provider. Now, we are much more than that. Sure, Bupa still offers global health plans, but now we also have national plans, a huge medical network (Vitamedica), an app and, recently, we acquired Bité Médica, a hospital with more than 20 specialties that will continue working with other insurance companies, receiving non-clients and clients of Bupa Mexico without any extra cost. All this was achieved by hard-working, outstanding, intelligent people. 

Our app, for example, is the result of years of planning to provide only the best services, nothing more, but nothing less. We have made constant efforts to listen to what people need and found a way to provide them with solutions. 

Along the same path, Bupa has evolved to internalize this idea: we take care of people’s health from the early stages, and that includes their mental health.

During the pandemic we developed a program called Bupa en Casa (Bupa at Home), since most of us wanted to avoid going to hospitals and clinics, unless it was necessary. We offered remote consultations with physicians and psychologists as well as emergency services (ambulances, for example). Now, we do that through the app. 

It's clear that the internet has modified the behavior of patients, since they are increasingly informed and aware, not to mention that we all found new channels for monitoring our health. However, all these services and platforms do not replace medical professionals. And I really hope that, by now, we are all clear on that.

A greater frequency has been observed in face-to-face assistance to clinics and hospitals. It is imperative to identify and take advantage of this new demand and innovation opportunities with a human approach; for example, the development and improvement of medical areas that include administrative offices or more operating rooms. Our objective is not to be “bigger” and purely digital; it is to be better and to provide a complete ecosystem. That is the basis for achieving more efficient and optimal processes as well as providing faster care.

In parallel, we’ve invested in improving our environment and our employee’s habits. A company’s mission and vision must be coherent both outside – toward our clients and societies – and inside, with our own workforce. We want to make our cities greener and our people more dynamic. 

At Bupa, we do not see health the old way, nor technology as an end. It is our tool to help people live longer, healthier, happier lives and to make a better world. That is our approach.