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Writer's pictureAnoop Kumar, MD

Google doesn't know what a health industry is

I typed "what is the health industry" into Google. The results are in the screenshot below. What surprised me–actually shocked me–is that it essentially ignored me completely and rephrased my question as being about the "healthcare" industry. 


I think that's nuts!



Dear Google, I didn't ask about the healthcare industry, which I'm familiar with. I asked about the health industry. If it doesn't exist, just tell me. People need to know.


Think about the significance of this. hashtag#Health is such a plain, highly-used word. Health is also highly coveted. And Google is essentially a digital version of the global mind, where you can find many results for even the most obscure search. You would think "health industry" would be a no-brainer. But no. I can find many results for "cat wigs," yet no details on a health industry.


Maybe you're saying, "Yeah but we just call the health industry the healthcare industry. Nothing to see here. Move on."


Well, imagine there is no housing industry, only a housing-care industry. And that housing care industry doesn't really know what housing is or could be. Imagine it doesn't know how deep the foundation should be, what materials should be used to build a house from scratch, or how to value a house. The industry only knows how to repair a ready-made house if there is an issue.


Imagine there is no auto industry, only an auto-care industry that doesn't really know what automobiles are, but specializes in malfunctions.


Imagine there is no energy industry, only an energy-care industry that doesn't really know what energy is, but knows when there isn't enough of something for a device to work.


We don't have housing-care, auto-care, or energy-care industries. Why, then, do we have a healthcare industry? Because we cannot have a health industry. We don't know what health is. 


The result? We talk endlessly about healthcare reform, new devices, new drugs, new businesses, new policies... anything to distract us from the discomfort of ignorance and the resultant pain that reverberates throughout our society. Instead of feeling the discomfort of the real problem, we create standby's and neatly place them adjacent to healthcare: wellness, wellbeing, spirituality, etc. We have a 5 trillion dollar wellness industry, but no health industry. 


We don't know what health is, and it's killing us while everyone is talking about healthcare.

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