Reimagining what personalized health care looks like in America

Sanket Shah: ©Otsuka Precision Health

It’s time to put the person in personalized and the care in health care. I believe we’re sitting on the precipice to truly reimagine what health care feels like.

While Americans spend $13,432 per person on health care (over $3,700 more than any other developed nation). We pour nearly 18% of our GDP into health care yet achieve four fewer years of life expectancy than Germany.

The numbers reveal both the problem and the promise. We're seeing the emergence of solutions that could finally address what's been missing: health care that treats people, not just populations, and that actually works for individuals. That's not hype; it's market validation for health care that actually works for individuals.

While there's talk about preventative care and "making America healthy again," most health care still operates as reactive symptom management. People navigate care pathways that frustrate and often fail them, engaging only when they're desperate: when they or someone they love is already sick.

But health care is bigger than crisis management. It's about helping people live longer and better every day, not just managing sickness when it arises.

This requires what we call the "health experience"—a fundamental shift from episodic care to continuous health engagement. The health experience isn't one thing; it's the interconnected components that transform how people engage with their health across all stages of life.

Leading organizations understand the solution isn't choosing between efficiency or personalization, between technology or humanity. It's "yes, and" to deliver better experiences, outcomes, and business results.

Yes to efficiency, and experience

Standardized treatment pathways prioritize existing protocols over individual needs.

In mental health, medication-first approaches may persist even when people prefer therapy or worry about side effects. A graduate student receives a prescription without anyone asking about affordability, their support network, or past experiences with psychiatric drugs.

This is changing through innovations like Otsuka's Rejoyn, the first FDA-authorized prescription digital therapeutic for adjunctive treatment of depression symptoms, meant to be used alongside traditional antidepressants. This six-week program combines cognitive emotional training with therapeutic lessons that can be completed in the palm of their hand, fitting into their life and schedule rather than the other way around. Early results show sustained symptom improvement across multiple scales.

Why this matters: Nearly $12 billion was invested from 2018 to 2022 on video- and messaging-based mental health treatment options. Research demonstrates real value for digital therapeutics, showing both strong clinical effectiveness and cost savings potential compared to traditional care pathways. Regulatory momentum follows suit—more than 35 DTx products across several therapeutic categories have been cleared by the FDA in the last five years.

The strategic insight: Efficiency and experience aren't competing priorities. They're synergistic when you design for the complete person, not just the condition.

Yes to technology, and humanity

Health care technology succeeds when it amplifies human connection rather than replacing it. The breakthrough happens when digital tools enhance the quality of human interactions, not eliminate them.

Consider how this works in practice: Data insights and AI can identify the right moment when an individual may need intervention or support. But the "humanity" part is having a nurse call at exactly that moment to provide support and answer questions. This not only helps with education and empowerment but can be the difference between successful onboarding and adherence. Technology doesn't replace the human touch; it can make human care more timely and meaningful.

Leading health care facilities demonstrate this balance by designing technology-enhanced workflows that use AI and telemedicine to augment human touchpoints in the care journey. They invest in staff training to leverage technology while maintaining focus on patient interaction.

Why this matters: People don't just want personalized algorithms; they want to feel understood by real people who have the right context. Research shows that patients who experience more physical contact with their nurses report higher satisfaction levels with their care.

The strategic insight: While AI and telemedicine are revolutionizing care delivery, they cannot replace empathy, judgment, and nuanced understanding of individual needs. Sustainable health engagement happens when advanced technology enables more human, more personalized health care experiences.

Yes to hard data, and personal preferences

Health care is drowning in data but starving for insights. We generate massive amounts of information from clinical settings (appointments, apps, lab results, genetic information) and even more now with digital tools and wearables, but most of it sits disconnected and unused. The opportunity isn't collecting more data; it's connecting and activating what we already have with the whole person in mind.

Consider diabetes management: integrate data from glucose monitors, fitness trackers, and food logs to identify blood sugar response patterns. Layer in someone's preference for plant-based eating, their medication concerns, and their exercise limitations. This enables recommendations for meal plans and activities that work with both their metabolism and their life circumstances.

Why this matters: Other industries connect data and behavior effectively. Why not health care? We have an opportunity to treat the people who experience conditions, not just the conditions themselves. This can improve adherence to treatment plans for hard-to-treat chronic conditions like diabetes.

The strategic insight: The right data, analyzed with the whole person in mind, transforms health care from reactive treatment to proactive life optimization.

Yes to innovation, and problem-led solutions

Health care innovation often starts with brilliant technology looking for a problem to solve. But breakthrough organizations flip this approach: they start with real problems faced by real people, then innovate solutions that actually work in those contexts.

The pattern of failed health tech is consistent: it's developed for affluent early adopters with ideal conditions, that struggle when reality hits. An app developed for users with reliable wifi and a consistent schedule may not work for a mother juggling multiple part-time jobs who is unable to access the internet while at work. Moreover, the cost of some solutions can make them inaccessible to those who need them most.

Problem-led innovation works differently. Consider designing for a working mother managing menopause. Most solutions treat this as a disease, but it’s a natural transition. When you design for the individual and use comprehensive data to understand each woman’s unique situation, you build in flexibility and create solutions that are more robust, accessible, and ultimately more effective for everyone. The result is creating solutions that are not only more accessible and inclusive and also ultimately more effective for the user.

Why this matters: For example, a digital therapeutic priced at $50 versus $500 isn't just about affordability. The accessible option forces innovation in delivery models and user experience that could create fundamentally better products.

The strategic insight: Organizations that start with real problems create more resilient business models. When your innovation solves actual challenges for the people who need it most, you don't just capture larger markets—you build solutions that actually work at scale.

Building the health experience

These components create the foundation for health experience transformation, shifting from healthcare's traditional either-or thinking to a both-and approach that recognizes the complexity of human health.

The question isn't whether personalized health care works. The question is which organizations will move decisively to capture this advantage by putting the complete health experience at the center of their innovation.

This "yes, and" approach represents Otsuka Precision Health’s commitment to transforming health care from a system that treats conditions to one that cares for people. We're saying yes to data and empathy. Yes to innovation and real-world problem-solving. Yes to efficiency and the profound human experience of being understood. We ask the health care industry to join us in redefining the health care experience.

The organizations that put human connection and the complete health experience at the center of innovation will define the future of health care.

Sanket Shah is president of Otsuka Precision Health