Health is connected. Your data should be too.
- Written by: Georg Hirschi, Co-Founder and CEO of Healthier
Why health data matters most when it helps people make better decisions in everyday life.
The health industry has spent the past decade convincing us that more data leads to better decisions. Consumers now have access to an unprecedented amount of data about their health metrics, while businesses have invested in increasingly sophisticated tools to collect it. But as the volume of data continues to grow and more users become obsessed with knowing their metrics, is it actually giving us more clarity, or are we blinded by the numbers?
The reality is that our health doesn't operate in isolation. What we eat influences how we exercise, how we sleep affects our energy and appetite, and how well we recover determines what we're capable of the following day. Yet much of the technology designed to support our wellbeing continues to measure these behaviours separately.
The rise of wearable devices, fitness trackers and health applications have fundamentally changed how consumers engage with their wellbeing. In Australia, a recent study by Bupa has found that 1 in 3 Australians now use wearables to track sleep and exercise, yet despite the growing market the issue remains the same - we have the numbers, but no knowledge on how to turn that data into actionable steps.
Our research from Healthier, involving an in-app survey and analysis of 8,547 Australian users, found that 58 per cent have lacked confidence interpreting their health information, while almost six in ten struggled to turn health advice into everyday habits. The issue isn't necessarily a lack of motivation or effort. Many people are already exercising, paying attention to their nutrition and trying to get enough rest, yet still struggle to understand which behaviours are making a difference.
For an industry built on the promise of helping people live healthier lives, these findings expose a fundamental challenge. Apps have become exceptionally good at collecting information, but the industry has arguably placed less emphasis on ensuring people understand what it means and how to act on it. Because ultimately, data alone doesn't drive progress. It's the everyday decisions and behaviour changes that follow that make the difference.
When more data creates more complexity
Someone looking to improve their health might rely on one application to track nutrition, another to monitor physical activity and a wearable to assess sleep quality. Individually, these tools provide valuable information, but they rarely explain how the different aspects of a person's health influence one another, leaving consumers responsible for interpreting multiple sets of data and deciding what deserves their attention.
Our research found half of surveyed Healthier users connected two more health applications, wearables or devices, demonstrating how easily health data can become fragmented across different platforms. The irony is that technology designed to simplify healthy living can instead introduce another layer of complexity. Rather than receiving a clear understanding of what might improve their wellbeing, consumers are presented with competing metrics, scores and recommendations that can be difficult to interpret. And without understanding the relationship between their nutrition, exercise and recovery, they may be making decisions based on only one part of the picture.
Turning data into a competitive advantage
This is the thinking behind Healthier. By bringing together data on nutrition, exercise and recovery, we can build a more complete picture of an individual's health and use those insights to deliver hyper-personalised coaching at the moments it matters most. Rather than simply telling someone what happened yesterday, the opportunity is to help them make a better decision today, whether that's adjusting their workout, prioritising sleep or making a small change to their nutrition.
Our analysis of 3,600 Healthier users is a clear example. Following two or more consecutive nights of poor sleep, users recorded an average of 2,220 fewer steps compared with their usual-sleep days. The proportion completing a planned exercise session fell from 72 per cent following usual sleep to 37 per cent after consecutive poor nights, while the proportion reporting strong cravings increased from 28 per cent to 45 per cent.
We have developed Healthier to connect these different signals and help someone understand whether they need to adjust their exercise, prioritise recovery or make a small change to their everyday routine. Rather than simply identifying where a person has fallen short, Healthier’s technology helps them recognise what they can realistically do next.
For someone who has slept poorly for two nights, the answer isn't necessarily another reminder to hit 10,000 steps or stick rigidly to their exercise plan. What they may need instead is coaching that recognises the impact of poor sleep and helps them make a more realistic decision, such as swapping an intense workout for a lighter activity, prioritising recovery or planning meals that support their energy levels.
Healthier’s objective isn't to achieve perfect scores across every metric, but to help individuals make sustainable improvements through small, consistent actions that work for their circumstances. Progress isn't always about doing more. Sometimes it's about understanding when to do less, when to adjust and which behaviours will have the greatest impact on how someone feels and functions.
There is a responsibility to ensure that innovation supports, rather than attempts to replace, professional expertise. Technology can play an important role in helping people understand their daily behaviours and build sustainable habits, but it should complement qualified healthcare professionals rather than substitute for clinical care.
For the health industry, the next stage of growth won't come from giving consumers another dashboard or more metrics to monitor. It will come from making better use of the information they already have. The businesses that can bring this data together, make sense of it and translate it into practical, personalised coaching will be better placed to deliver real value to consumers. Ultimately, the measure of success shouldn't be how much data a platform collects, but whether it helps people make better decisions about their health and maintain those changes over time.
Healthier is available to download from the App Store and Google Play.