Go local. Embrace low-tech. Maximize relationships. Make it sexy.

Here’s a snippet of my take over at The Future Well on what the internet means to our health:

We’re still humans with 200,000 years of ingrained behaviors that only changed to a sedentary lifestyle in the past 100 years or so. So we need real human to human interactions to encourage us to fight our modern conveniences, move, and eat food, mostly plants. This isn’t sexy. It’s low-tech. It’s real relationships with family, friends, and local professionals trained in behavioral modification.

All of this, of course, needs to be packaged up in a sexy experience for people. They need to feel comfortable surrounded by an aesthetic that makes them feel good.

So go local, embrace low-tech, maximize real relationships, and make it sexy. This will be the future of effective healthcare in a community. Our life expectancy has almost flatlined compared to the explosive growth in the last 100 years. We don’t think anyone wants to live as a 90 year old for 40 years. If doctors want to be just as effective in the next 100 years as they were in the past 100, we’ll have to focus on optimizing happiness and satisfaction with life in the healthiest and most enjoyable years of our lives…and not simply prolonging life.