Why Progresso Soup was at CES 2026: How Food is Playing Into the Evolving Health Consumer and Retail Health Landscape
Why was Progresso Soup and its manufacturer General Mills at CES 2026? Specifically, in the AgeTech Collaborative curated by AARP? If you are part of the health/care ecosystem in any of its segments, chances are you’re attending conferences at the start of 2026 or soon to attend one. I spent last week at CES 2926 in Las Vegas getting updates on digital health, well-being, and self-care innovations. This week, hundreds of my colleagues are attending #JPM2026, the 44th annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference held in San Francisco every year at this time. One conference that would not have been well-attended
Tech Trends to Watch at CES 2026 – For Health, It’s About Longer Living, Smarter Living, and Better Living
Live from CES 2026 in Las Vegas…the first day of CES Media Days preceding the big show always covers a context-setting report on Tech Trends to Watch. This is one of my annual go-to programs which helps orient media and industry analysts with a lens on CES’s key tech categories and some hard data on market size and growth expectations. While I’ll focus on the health/care specifics in the trend forecast, let me first update you on the overall technology market revenues for the U.S. which are estimated at $565 billion for 2026.
Exercise is Health Care, and Consumers Are Willing to Pay – Context for #CES2026
“Americans are not just setting fitness goals; they are budgeting for them,” Liz Clark, President and CEO of the Health & Fitness Association observed. “People increasingly see exercise as an essential investment in their long-term health. Even in a challenging economic environment, Americans are prioritizing physical activity as a proactive form of preventive healthcare.” Americans see exercise as healthcare — and health — according to a survey from the Health & Fitness Association (HFA). HFA commissioned Kantar to conduct the online survey among 2,000 U.S. adults 18 and over in December 2025 — well-timed for the
A Primer on Health Consumers for CES 2026 – How Macro Consumer Trends Will Shape Healthcare Consumers in 2026
Increasingly, people are engaging more in health care decision making due to many factors impacting their personal medical choices — from the cost and access to health insurance to co-payments for prescription drugs and the supply of primary care doctors, more patients developed and exercised their health consumer muscles in 2025, For 2026, the health consumer muscle-building will grow as people will be re-shaped by macro market factors we are currently gleaning from forecasts looking into the new year: for personal finances, social issues, technology adoption, views on AI and privacy, and other issues. Here are some data points to
Navigating a Constellation of Uncertainties: Health/Care in 2026 (My Un-Forecast)
Almost from the first year of launching Health Populi in 2007, I’ve written a “TrendCast” for the coming year of health care. Over many years, there weren’t so many blogs devoted to health care which featured such prognostications, and so readers could divine signal from noise and move forward into new years with manageable lists of What To Expect Next Year in Healthcare. Here’s one from ten years ago that brings a sense of déjà vu: most of the findings are consistent with what we know for sure about 2026 and it’s useful to look back with today’s eyes to
The New Health Consumer Mindset and Wallet: From GLP-1s to Trading Up for Health & Longevity
From GLP-1s to longevity and new views on self-care for healthcare, the people are taking their health in-hand, at-home, and via-tech to complement and sometimes replace the legacy health system touchpoints which are the traditional categories for care: hospitals, doctors, rehab centers, diagnostics and labs, and health care financing and plans — some opting out of plans and going full-risk (cash, out-of-pocket) truly self-insuring against future medical risks. As I prepare to publish my Year-End/New Year TrendCast for 2026, I felt like front-ending next week’s annual long post with details on the demand side of the forecast — a focus
Men’s Fertility Feelings – The Influence of Trust and Social Media (My Progyny Post #3)
Trust is a key enabler for people’s health engagement. As the American Medical Colleges’ Center for Health Justice defines it, trustworthiness is “rooted in honesty and honors lived experience….. key to a successful patient-provider partnership.” In his book, Notes On Being A Man, Scott Galloway calls out that men’s fertility issues are formed as part of a larger societal context and crisis point, exacerbated by economic pressures and lack of opportunities for male bonding and in-person social touchpoints. In the second post in this series of three, we discussed those economic pressures Galloway notes, and the financial stressors that shape
Thanks to Jennifer Castenson for her article in Green Builder Media tracking the growing trend of home-building baked with wellness inside and out. She interviewed me for the piece and I'm grateful to have my perspectives covered in this important issue. Here's one snippet: “Now, we are starting to see areas of the home purposed for health and we have started to think about how to repurpose the home for health."
Jane joined host Dr. Geeta "Dr. G" Nayyar and colleagues to brainstorm the value of vaccines for public and individual health in this challenging environment for health literacy, health politics, and health citizen grievance. Click onto the Pfizer Value of Vaccines site and you can watch four episodes covering the challenges with adult vaccination, the employer and health plan member's journey to vaccination, reimbursement, and collaborating for proactive prevention.
I'm grateful to be part of the Duke Corporate Education faculty, sharing perspectives on the future of health care with health and life science companies. Once again, I'll be brainstorming the future of health care with a cohort of executives working in a global pharmaceutical company.