The future of incontinence care is digital according to Essity

Essity is a leader in digital health and facility management technologies such as incontinence change indicators, wound navigators and data-driven cleaning to transform healthcare, professional cleaning and people’s everyday lives.

Under the global brand Tena, which has created products for incontinence care for over 60 years, the company has set out to challenge perceptions of an entire category.

According to Essity we are going into a world where personal hygiene, health and well-being is more preventive, connected, personalized and sustainable than ever before.

I met with Axel Norberg, Global Brand Director iQ Solutions, to ask why a company that is a market leader in selling incontinence products is driving the innovation towards solutions for preventive care that will lead to fewer absorbent products being used?

“We are driven by innovation that should benefit people”, says Axel Nordberg, Global Brand Director iQ Solutions. “Our strategy is based on always being relevant to customer needs as a company. If we are, we will be able to build a business on developing new preventive solutions in incontinence as well”.

It is all about broadening the offer, not about replacing one product with another.

“Our driving force is and has always been to innovate to help more people achieve greater freedom and quality of life. As a global company providing hygiene and health products to hundreds of millions of people every day, we have the responsibility and ambition to make a real impact on people’s well-being”and digital solutions will help both care givers and care takers, Axel adds.

A new step into the future

Business in the future will not look the same as today for Essity.

“Today our core is absorbent product sales, but in the future, we will have a combination of products, digital solutions and services. Taking advantage of digital solutions to a larger extent will enable us to be relevant to the evolving needs of our customers and consumers and provide services such as care recommendations, continence promoting support, etc. at their fingertips, Axel Nordberg explains.

As an example, to facilitate the work of professional caregivers, and at the same time create a better quality of life for the resident, Essity has developed a digital sensor, TENA SmartCare, which is a change indicator, that notifies the caregiver when absorbent protection needs to be changed. This means that the protection can be changed exactly when needed, avoiding too many or too few changes, leading to less intrusion and more dignity, fewer disruptions to sleep and daytime activities and less risk of leakages and skin exposure to urine. By efficient routines the staff workload is optimised witch give more time for other care tasks. In short, resources can be used more efficiently, and it will be possible to work towards a truly individualized continence care.

“By developing the change indicator, we are taking a completely new step into the future. Presumably, using the change indicator may result in fewer absorbent pads being used, but in turn the indicator becomes a high value product. The change intervals are completely individual, so with the SmartCare change indicator the caregiver can have precise control over change intervals for many patients at the same time”, Axel concludes.