Beyond technology: Rethinking engagement in chronic disease care
American health care creates an enormous amount of data every year. Deloitte estimates about 2.3 zettabytes of data are generated annually, with health care making up roughly 30% of the world’s total data volume.1 At the same time, more than 1.5 million biomedical articles are published each year.2
With all this information, one question stands out: What motivates people to take charge of their health?
A shared effort to rethink engagement
To explore this question, the Milken Institute and Deloitte brought together leaders from health care, technology, nonprofits, and retail. Their goal: Examine how technology and coordinated care can reshape chronic disease management and move beyond traditional approaches to engagement.
Where care breaks down
Five parts of the system touch most people with chronic conditions:
- Primary care
- Home health
- Pharmacy
- Behavioral health
- Social needs like food, housing, and transportation
Too often, these parts work on their own. That creates confusion and delays. When they work together through value-based care models, results improve and health gaps can shrink—especially in places where coordination is strong.
Data is powerful. People make it matter.
Technology can bring health guidance into everyday life—like adding clear, useful health tips to food deliveries so people see advice right when it’s relevant. Artificial intelligence (AI) can help spot patterns in who is not participating and why. But numbers alone don’t move people. Change happens when a trusted person reaches out: a clinician with time to listen, a pharmacist who follows up, a neighbor who checks in.
Trust comes first
About one in five Americans relies on Medicaid,3 and many face stigma and judgment. That pushes people away from care even when services exist. Trust grows through transparency, plain language, and respect. When people feel seen, heard, and valued, they engage. Moving fast without clear ethical guardrails erodes trust, and politics can complicate health decisions. Steady, open dialogue matters.
Meet communities where they are
High-tech tools help. So do low-tech touchpoints. Bring conversations to libraries, schools, and community centers. Talk openly about AI—what it does, what it doesn’t, and how it supports better care. Use research tools to guide decisions. Pair them with simple phone calls to check in on older adults who may be isolated. Both ends of the spectrum count.
What works
- Connect the five touchpoints so care feels unified
- Use technology to spot needs and remove barriers in real life
- Pair insights with human outreach—warm handoffs, follow-ups, and plain language
- Build trust through transparency and listening
- Bring health conversations into everyday community spaces
The bottom line
Progress against chronic disease will not come from data alone. It will come from combining smart insights with community engagement, strong ethics, and relationships that turn information into action. When innovation meets empathy, we build healthier tomorrows.
Endnotes
1Sara Siegel, 2024Global Health Care Sector Outlook: Navigating transformation, Deloitte, 2023.
2Rita González-Márquez et al., “The landscape of biomedical research,” Patterns 5, no. 6 (2024):
100968.
3Anna Claire Vollers, “A fifth of Americans are on Medicaid.
Some of them have no idea,” Stateline,
April 9, 2025.
Beth Meagher
Jennifer J. Walcott
