Disruptive Innovation in Healthcare: Changing the Way We Think about Seasonal Allergy
Recurring seasonal allergy symptoms are already a serious daily struggle for many. Now we also have COVID 19 and worsening allergy seasons to contend with. Luckily, disruptive healthcare innovation in this space is becoming a key resource in the struggle against pollen allergy — and changing the way we think about it.
A Growing Market
Allergic rhinitis already affects between 10%-30% of the entire world population. Now there’s evidence to suggest that hayfever (or allergic rhinitis) is on the rise, especially in urban areas. By 2025, half of the entire EU population could suffer from seasonal allergy (!)
Researchers have also found evidence that pollen seasons could be lengthening as a result of climate change (source):
COVID-19 made things even scarier. One study by a group of Finish researchers found the sudden start of pollen season increased COVID-19 mortality due to preexisting respiratory diseases by as much as 20% (!)
A Gap in the Market: Why Allergy Sufferers Need a Personalized Approach
Trees, grass & weeds are the main plant types responsible for seasonal allergy. However, within these categories, there are numerous types of plant pollen that cause different allergic reactions for different people — Birch, Olive, Oak and more. (More on this here.)
For individuals seeking to manage allergic symptoms based on pollen triggers, it’s not enough just to know where and when the pollen count is high, they also need to know which pollen they’re sensitive to — and to access information that’s broken down this way.
Here’s the thing: Actionable pollen information has been missing for a long time due to outdated and highly manual forms of pollen measurement. As higher-resolution pollen insights become available, more companies are realizing the opportunity and figuring out new forms of disruptive health innovation through personalization and digital patient engagement.
Disruptive Innovation in Healthcare: Examples
A — Personalized Health Recommendations
How to deal with the familiar patient engagement challenge?
The allergy leaders, ALK integrate location-based pollen, weather, and air quality information into their dedicated companion app, Klara, to deliver personalized health recommendations to their users.
Not only do users receive round-the-clock environmental information at their location, but the information is also broken down by individual pollen types species, and air pollutants.
(By thinking about users first, ALK reduced their app churn rate by 50%).
B — Programmatic Ads & Marketing Automation based on the Pollen Count
If advertisers know where and when the pollen count is high at any one time, they also know where to prioritize marketing and spend.
As long as they have a constantly updated data feed, they can even automate where and when their ads appear:
This eBook explains how Neutrogena and Spirable worked together to leverage environmental information in precisely this way for a highly personalized anti-pollution skincare campaign:
C — Smarter Chore Planning with ‘Best Time to Do Laundry’ Notifications
We all use the weather forecast to know when it’s a bad idea to hang laundry outside — so it makes sense that healthcare innovation is also making its way into the products of lifestyle, wellness and smart home brands too. An increasing number of app makers are exploring the idea of ‘best time to do laundry’ alerts for sensitive groups.
(When the pollen count is high, clothes, sheets, and towels hung outside risk capturing pollen grains, which could cause symptoms for allergy sufferers).
D — Allergy Warnings => User Stickiness
To prevent seasonal allergy symptoms, sufferers need to manage their exposure and avoid the triggers they’re sensitive to and/or take allergy medication ahead of time.
By finding imaginative, innovative ways to deliver this kind of information to those who need it, product designers are benefiting from increased stickiness and user retention.
F — Translating Seasonal Allergy into Something Visual & Fun
Big brands like Taisho Pharmaceutical have started to build highly visual and engaging digital health experiences specifically around pollen levels.
Last season, pollen sufferers in Japan were able to check-in with Taisho anytime they wanted to know the live and forecast pollen conditions for an exact location:
To round-up…
Disruptive innovation in healthcare is coming to the seasonal allergy market as more and more companies eye up the pollen allergy business opportunity.
By developing solutions that are more personalized for their allergy-suffering audiences, healthcare and wellness companies witness both improved engagement and increased ROI. Meanwhile, hayfever sufferers are more empowered. Win-win!
For those that want to go deeper, check out this eBook:
