What will be the most significant trend, development, or event in health and wellness in the next 5 years?

Rediscovering the art in the heart of health promotion
Health Promotion has been defined as the "science and art of helping people... move towards... optimal health..." The science tells us what to do and the art tells us how to do it. Science and art can be metaphorically represented by the brain and the heart; the brain represents knowledge, and the heart represents the capacity for human compassion.

We live in an age when technology is considered a transformational force that will change everything. If it does change everything, will there be unintended side effects? As a society we are officially drowning in an efficient, hyperlinked sea of information with not a drop of compassion in sight. I believe that widespread use of technology may amplify the epidemic of the next millenium, disconnection. Consider the following:

• In a series of articles from a multi-site Health Promotion intervention trial, one of the leading indicators of effectiveness was personal counseling.

• Approximately 1/3 of the effectiveness reviews published in the American Journal of Health Promotion between 1996 and 1998, mentioned the importance of personal counseling.

• In one study, 73 homes (169 individuals) were given internet access for two years. At conclusion, greater internet use was related to decreased family communication, decreased size of social networks, and increased feelings of depression, stress and loneliness.

• In a study by the Health Enhancement Research Organization, the top two risk factors for high medical costs were depression and stress.

We may have to explore the possibilities of the information age to learn, as an unintended side effect, that the more people use technology, the more they will thirst for compassion. T.S. Eliot said, "... And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time."

Technology will create change, but I predict that we will learn, when we finally arrive at the far side of the technological transformation, that low tech, high touch interventions will be cheaper, more effective, and will feel nicer on the heart. When we get to that place, we will know it... for the first time.