In the past year, we have seen first-hand the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the livelihoods and wellbeing of people at an unprecedented, global scale. The Malaysian Health and Wellness Industry has faced major upheavals with not only tackling the pandemic but in mitigating the mental health and overall wellness issues stemming from periods of isolation and prolonged lockdowns. Mental wellness problems have impacted individuals and businesses directly through increased absenteeism, negative impact on productivity and profits, as well as an increase in costs to deal with the issue. Through this, people are approaching health and wellness in new ways — demanding easier access to medical assistance and focusing on long-term wellness in one’s overall health equation.
In light of this, Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) and Human Inc partnered to host the Digital Health and Wellness Roundtable on the 5th of August. The roundtable saw a range of participation from 40 stakeholders such as corporates, startups, investors, industry associations and government bodies. Participating stakeholders include MDEC, KPJ, Astrazeneca, Naluri, Techcare and fitSEA to name a few. This diverse panel brought a holistic span of perspectives on the Health and Wellness industry which set the stage for collaborative opportunities to be explored beyond the roundtable session.
The Roundtable succeeded in gathering inputs — key industry trends, stakeholder challenges, innovation pathways and potential opportunities — from various industry stakeholders to spearhead a discussion on the growth and innovation of the Malaysian Digital Health and Wellness Industry. Details and key insights of the stated input can be found in Human Inc’s report here.
Ranking of Key Areas to Innovate – Digital Health and Wellness Roundtable Report (2021)
Here are our Key Takeaways:
- There is a significant need to solve industry-wide challenges, by collaborating between different industry stakeholders: A discussion involving a range of industry players provides well-rounded perspectives to solve challenges that cut across the whole industry. We have observed the need for closer collaboration to allow for a co-creation of holistic solutions for the end user, using differing expertise from each stakeholder.
- Collective learning is key to spearhead innovation: As competition causes industry players to stay guarded about their solutions, this has created an environment where smaller players struggle to build a solid network with larger corporations who may be seeking strategic partnerships to spearhead innovation. The roundtable brought to light the importance of mutual learning between bigger and smaller players in order to push one another to innovate further.
On behalf of Human Inc, we would like to thank MaGIC for providing us the opportunity to host and facilitate this Digital Health and Wellness Roundtable. This roundtable enabled the top Health and Wellness stakeholders to bounce-off insights with one another, widen their network and create synergy. We hope the roundtable has had a positive impact on each stakeholder and hope to see these discussions being used to accelerate their journey towards propelling Malaysia’s Digital Health and Wellness industry.
If you wish to read more about key insights of the Digital Health and Wellness Roundtable, please refer to the report here.