As patients morph into health consumers, people are merging their connected digital lives in retail, entertainment and personal finance into their health care identities. As such, people seek from health care the same kind of streamlined, empowering and even enchanting customer experiences they find in other parts of daily living. The health consumer has been Amazon-“Primed” for health care, I describe in my book, HealthConsuming: From Health Consumer to Health Citizen.

HealthConsuming tracks the growing trend of the patient-as-payor, with growing expectations of consumer experience levels connected through digital tools and Internet of Things devices that bolster health, wellness and caregiving at home. Think: Alexa-meets-health-and-wellness as part of this phenomenon.

The front doors for health at retail are growing, enabling people to “make health” in their communities outside of traditional health care provider brick-and-mortar sites like doctors’ offices and hospitals. Digital connections enable virtual care, telehealth and self-care.

With the promise of tech- and retail-enabled health care everywhere, HealthConsuming’s call to action is to expand peoples’ access to quality health care while ensuring privacy and security protections for all health citizens.

On the main stage at CES 2020, I will focus on the growing opportunity for digital health found throughout the show, including and beyond the digital health aisles at the Venetian — from the connected car for health and wellness and washing machines that bolster social health for kids in schools, to the internet of healthy things at home like food making in kitchens, beds that promote good sleep, and smart mirrors in bathrooms that will help people track health beyond the steps they take tracked by their smartwatches and phones.