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Future health
Expats want more choice from their health and well-being benefits
We asked expats what they truly want from their employer-provided wellness benefits. Discover how the pandemic has affected attitudes and more.
Polarised perceptions of corporate health and wellness – Aetna International survey results
The data from our ongoing proprietary research into the employer-employee gap in perceptions of corporate wellness and workplace well-being
Health care trends 2021
Our predictions for 2021 and beyond: adoption of virtual health, diagnostic algorithms, chronic disease management, digital therapeutics, The Internet of Bodies, investment, mental health, virtual reality, psychedelic therapy, genomic medicine, personalization, data and artificial intelligence.
Expat and international employee health care trends 2021
Experts make their predictions for expat health care into 2021 and beyond — technology, virtual health, mental health and more.
The COVID-19 legacy: How the pandemic will influence the corporate employment and benefits landscape
How can organisations keep pace with the changing health and economic landscape to survive and thrive in the short- and longer-term? From economic factors to employee wellness benefits.
UAE vs UK: Why are employee attitudes to workplace technology so different?
Our recent survey found differences in attitudes and experiences of employees in UAE versus those in the UK — the former being more positive about technology and its impact on health, wellness and work/life balance, than employees in the UK. We explain why this might be.
The digital health dilemma: Is technology keeping workers healthy or making them ill?
How is digital technology in the workplace impacting physical and mental health and well-being, and how businesses can support staff and benefit from a healthy digital culture?
Don’t turn off, turn down: Digital detox at work
What is the impact of digital overload at work? And what can you do to maximise the benefits that tech brings while minimising its potential damage? Get practical solutions protect your health and wellness.
Corporate health care and wellness trends — 2020 and beyond
Read our predictions for upcoming health care trends within the corporate world — from technology adoption to building company trust to improve well-being.
Business of health 2020: How organisations can overcome employee health inertia
Investigating employees’ attitudes and barriers to self-care and well-being, and helping employers inspire action to create a culture of well-being and healthy, productive workforces.
5 corporate wellness strategies to help encourage employees to take control of their own health
This article summarises the key findings, but, most importantly, offers guidance on how employers can support their employees in building healthier lifestyles.
Business of health 2020: Tackling polarised perceptions in corporate health and wellness
Our new report analyses global employer and employee opinions and experiences of health and wellness benefits to help employers confidently future-proof their organisations
7 strategies for businesses to improve corporate health and wellness benefits provision in 2020
Our recent survey of 1,000 HR directors and 4,000 employees worldwide reveals opportunities for businesses to improve staff health, happiness, retention and productivity.
Employee perceptions of mental and physical health in the workplace
This report an survey reveals the results of a survey of 1,000 employees to understand the perceptions of mental and physical health in the workplace.
Aetna International's DNA health test explained
How do Aetna International’s DNA health tests work? What will it tell me and how do I use my results?
An introduction to DNA health testing to improve your health and well-being
DNA testing has gone from prohibitively expensive to widely available for ancestry and health testing, but what will a DNA health test tell us and how is that data used?
An introduction to genomic medicine and DNA health tests
DNA health tests are on the rise but what can they tell us and how will they be used to make us healthier?
How genetics, technology, community and providers can help people build healthier lifestyles
Innovations and early adopters are creating processes that promise to improve uptake of healthy lifestyle choices — and DNA health testing has a key role to play.
Technology in health care 2019: a review
How is technology continuing to drive innovations in health care and improving access to care through increased personalisation?
The real role of genetics in health care
DNA health tests are on the rise, but do people need to interpret their results and how are health care providers meeting that need?
5 ways Aetna International is embracing the health care revolution
Health care is transforming, with a shift in focus from simply treating individuals when they’re sick, to striving to keep individuals healthy. How is the health care industry responding, and how is this benefitting people and health care systems alike? We outline the path to health care that provides more years free from disease, improved lifespans and eases the pressures on health care systems.
International employee health care trends: 2019
Four doctors discuss health, health care, international assignments and the health insurance trends that we will see emerge and develop in 2019.
Expatriate health management: the untapped value of virtual care
Virtual care demand and supply continue to grow. This article explores the difference employers can expect the service to make to their sustainability, workforce and their bottom line, and also provides an employer’s guide to selecting a good virtual care provider.
Corporate wellness trends 2019: approaches to employee well-being
Employee well-being is fast becoming a priority to corporations, as to get the most efficient productivity, employers must pay attention to the mental well-being of their most vital asset — their ‘human capital’. We speak to Aetna International’s Director of Health and Wellness Solutions, Pamela Berger, to offer employers a view on what’s coming in corporate wellness next year.
A painful puzzle: How to treat chronic pain without feeding addiction
What is the opioid crisis? What’s Aetna’s response to the epidemic? What’s the potential for similar problems to develop in other nations around the world? In this white paper, Aetna International explores what global communities can learn from the U.S. opioid addiction crisis. The piece examines the safeguards, medical controls and education programmes that can be put in place to help ensure the crisis doesn’t develop elsewhere.
Personalised and protected: Health and wellness for the globally mobile
From vital signs to MRI results, and from wearable fitness trackers, genome sequencing to family history and more besides, health care consumers and their records are awash with data. Accessing, analysing and using that data can be difficult when the information is spread across disparate databases. What’s more, consumers who have been faced with countless data breaches in recent years are wary of who should have access to that data. What are the potential solutions to ensure that consumers’ health and wellness benefit from all this health data?
What is virtual health? The technology that promises to revolutionise health care for expats and the globally mobile
Imagine having a doctor in your pocket. Virtual health technology is doing just that by allowing people to access family doctors (General practitioners also known as GPs) without having to travel. Some services include mailing prescriptions and monitoring of chronic conditions.
How personalised care can help you keep fit and well
The health care revolution means a focus on keeping people fit and healthy, rather than just treating them when they’re sick. Our Five Truths explain how Aetna International are embracing the revolution to keep you healthier for longer.
A dignified death: Realising the promise of living wills and palliative care
Record numbers of us are living with chronic and terminal illness into even older age. Far too many people experience unnecessary suffering, particularly at the end of life. Redesigning the infrastructure around palliative care and the available choices over when and how we die can help people experience care and death in a way that makes all of us feel more human, connected and dignified.
7 graphics that explain: What is an ‘ageing population’?
This article will explain what an ageing population is, why they occur and the impact they can have on society, especially on health care systems, and what can be done to offset that impact.
Transforming health through ‘the four Ps’ of value-based care
With advances in big data analysis, genetic profiling, wearable technology and digital health support, consensus has been building toward a new health care approach that focuses on ‘the four Ps’: Predictive, preventative, personalised, participatory care.
The Cardiovascular Health 2018 report
The rise in non-communicable diseases and ageing populations are placing unsustainable pressures on health systems and economies. At Aetna International, we work hard to raise awareness of diseases such as cardiovascular disease and to champion prevention and early intervention to help alleviate this pressure.
Recently, we contributed to a new Raconteur Special Report, Cardiovascular Health 2018, published in The Times. The report includes an opinion piece by The British Heart Foundation’s Chief Executive, Simon Gillespie, as well as comment by Dr Mitesh Patel, Medical Director, Aetna International.
Health care access: How to deliver quality and value via network management
Network management exists to ensure international private medical insurance plan holders have access to quality health care at a competitive price. Private health and wellness benefits providers like Aetna International maintain robust network management strategies to tackle the challenges of medical cost inflation and to deliver the best health care outcomes.
Life expectancy: More complex than genetics
The global population is living longer. How do our genes and lifestyle choices influence life expectancy? Are our extra years healthy ones? And are lifespan improvements equal between men and women around the world? What can we do to ensure a long, healthy life? Find out in this life expectancy overview.
Swipe right for better health: How the Internet of Things can transform patient care
In this article, Dr Sneh Khemka, Aetna International’s Vice President of Population Health Solutions and vHealth, explores how these connected devices are improving patients’ access to care, re-shaping treatments and delivering a better patient and caregiver experience.
How the Internet of Things can improve your health — a guide
The Internet of Things (IoT) promises to revolutionise our day-to-day lives – and that revolution has already begun. Find out which gadgets can improve health, and which can help those with chronic conditions management.
Virtual care — the future for expats
Connected technology enables individuals to access ways of staying healthy. It also creates convenient access to primary health care — ideal for expats. Virtual health care can diagnose what is wrong, provide immediate care, refer patients to specialists when necessary, and help coordinate ongoing care.
Bending the curve: Tackling fraud, waste and abuse
Aetna International’s report — Bending the curve: Tackling fraud, waste and abuse (FWA) — examines the influence of FWA on medical inflation and highlights the organisation’s proactive, zero tolerance approach in tackling the issue.
How health care companies can use biometric data to keep you healthy
You probably record and access your biometric data regularly – even if you aren’t even aware that you’re doing it. So what exactly is it, and how can health care companies use it to benefit you?
Smart health apps for expats
Let these mobile apps help you to take control of your physical and mental health wherever you are in the world. From fitness apps to sleep monitoring.
Bending the curve: Addressing rising costs in health care
“‘Tis impossible to be sure of anything but death and taxes.” — Christopher Bullock, 1716. This statement is not completely accurate, however, because these days one also can be almost as sure of medical cost inflation. In this white paper, we examine the main influencers of medical inflation: utilisation and unit cost. We also outline the need for global cost containment strategies that centre around value-based care delivered in the community — addressing rising health care costs, clinical inefficiency and duplication of services, and making it easier for people to get the quality care they need.
Antibiotic resistance: Toward better stewardship of a precious medical resource
Antibiotic resistance has emerged as one of the world’s deadliest health crises. The spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria is threatening the effectiveness of last-resort treatments for life-threatening infections. In this white paper, we outline the scope of the problem, review the solutions pursued by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Aetna, among others, and call for more proactive education, intervention campaigns and action to be taken across the globe.
Pandemic: Controlling infectious diseases before they spread
WhatIf the effects of outbreaks like Ebola are likely to be felt around the world, what should the world do to stop the next pandemic before it starts? To share our views of this very significant risk and our thoughts on how to counteract it, we have released an opinion paper, ‘Pandemic: Controlling infectious diseases before they spread’
Endemic infectious diseases: Focusing the world’s attention on neglected killers
Outsized media and public attention on emergent infectious diseases such as Zika and Ebola can divert funding, research and humanitarian efforts aimed at reducing millions of deaths from such chronic infectious diseases as malaria, HIV/AIDs, diarrhoeal disease, tuberculosis and lower respiratory tract infections. Learn more on our suggestions for tackling this issue in our paper ‘Endemic infectious diseases: Focusing the world’s attention on neglected killers’.
The ticking bomb: Ageing population
There’s no doubt that in developed countries, people are living longer than ever before, and that the average life expectancy of those in many emerging markets is quickly catching up. Unfortunately, a longer lifespan doesn’t mean an extended healthspan – years free from disease. Global health care systems are facing increasing challenges as a result. We explore the most prevalent health conditions facing today’s ageing populations, the strains placed on health care systems and outline the clinical solutions in this white paper – The ticking time bomb: Ageing population.
The forgotten killer: Cardiovascular disease
Emergent infectious diseases such as Zika virus may get the lion’s share of short-term media and public attention, but health care professionals know that cardiovascular disease (CVD) affects millions more. And in most places around the world, CVD deaths have been increasing, according to Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 and our own data at Aetna International. In our white paper – The forgotten killer: Cardiovascular disease – we are advocating and targeting preventable risk factors through lifestyle changes as a means of tackling this increase.
How genetic information can support your family’s health: a guide
What if the source of an illness comes from within the body—from problems with the genetic code? Advances in genetic information can help us not only understand but improve our family’s health.
What is genomic medicine? An introduction to genetics in health care
Scientists and doctors have been studying genes and hereditary conditions (those handed down from parent to child) for many years. Discover more about how studying genes can provide an understanding of an individual’s predisposition to certain health conditions.
Bringing virtual care to life
Innovations in digital technology have enhanced our daily lives in so many ways. Not only does it enable us to successfully manage our fast-paced lives, it also gives us access to the highest quality services in the world. And, health care services are no exception. Virtual health care is rapidly improving the way we access and receive care.
Expatriate mental health: Breaking the silence and ending the stigma
Mental health is a growing issue for expats; workers and their employers, as well as those relocating independently as shown by our white paper - Expatriate mental health: Breaking the silence and ending the stigma. To ensure expats have the vital support they need when relocating or working away from their home country, we’re calling for businesses and individuals to take more pre-emptive action to combat the problem.
Cancer in the developed world
Cancer is understood around the world as the word you never want to hear your doctor say. In the past, inadequate understanding of its causes, coupled with inadequate treatment, made it appear to be a death sentence. The truth is that cancer is not a single disease. It is a wide range of conditions, some of which may well be eradicated in future.
Striking the right balance: Global caesarean delivery rates in an era of controversy
This Aetna International white paper draws on World Health Organization (WHO) figures and data and a recent Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) article on the optimal rate of caesarean sections, whilst recognising the potential downsides to surgical delivery, challenging the idea that caesareans are by default safer.
How governments can tackle obesity in their country
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity rates have more than doubled since 1980. Today, 13% of adults and 6.3% of children are obese. And that’s globally. Without intervention, overweight and obese children are likely to struggle with weight into adulthood.
Your greatest expat health risk: Not always the headline-grabbing diseases
It can be dangerous to focus ONLY on headline-grabbing diseases and ignore the ones that pose a real threat to expats.
Globesity: tackling the world’s obesity pandemic
We at Aetna International believe there is sufficient evidence to show that immediate, coordinated action on a global scale is needed to tackle ‘globesity’. Our challenge as a global society is to band together to apply what we know in a vast international effort to end the globesity pandemic. Read more.
Diabetes: The world’s weightiest problem
Diabetes has the potential to overwhelm health care systems and wreck economies across the globe – yet the disease is largely preventable and controllable. Employing proactive disease management and developing innovative new tools can help members better manage their condition and increase medication adherence enabling them to live healthier lives. Find out more in ‘Diabetes: The world’s weightiest problem’.
