Page 88 - Malaysian Dietary Supplement Industry Status and Outlook Report 2019-2020 Preview

monitoring has been greatly eased by smart/fitness watches
and similar devices.

The technology driven personalization of healthcare is
observed at the medical front as well, such as:

• Remote Patient Monitoring. Digital mobile devices
across a wider range of medical applications are
given to patients to monitor their own symptoms
and/or chronic illnesses.
• Artificial Intelligence. Medical diagnosis is
conducted more effectively and accurately with
respect to characteristics of the illness which may be
individual/unique to the patient.
• Virtual Telemedicine. Clinical visits can be done on
a more frequent and distributed basis through
implementation of virtual clinics.

As technology continues to drive the medical front, the tide-
rising that ensues will generate a more dynamic landscape
for nutritional health industries. But more importantly,
dietary supplementation industries must think beyond
traditional business models and consider how technology
can play a prominent role that synergizes with new
consumer behaviours. The following are some starting
points for consideration:

• One Size Does Not Fit All. As personalized nutrition
becomes increasingly accessible and practicable for
the masses, how can dietary supplementation
products be tailored beyond existing categories
toward individual requirements?
• Consumer Engagement. With the advent of
personalized nutrition and the Internet of Things,
what new consumer touchpoints and distribution
channels are needed, and what impacts will they
bear on traditional business models?
• Transparent Products. Tracking of food and
beverage products from farm to table is maturing
with technologies such as blockchain getting closer
to scale. How can dietary supplement industries
adapt to these mega food technologies?

Like other consumer-based industries, technology
disruption in the dietary supplements industry has been
significant particularly in the area of marketing and
distribution. E-commerce has greatly eased access to market,
and data gathered from these platforms have mainly
enabled marketing spending to be more effective. Ongoing
technology progression in the food and nutritional space
will extend technology’s impact beyond marketing into
product development and poses a challenge that industry
players will have to seriously prepare for.
88