In our exclusive Design Fiction series for France’s CB News, we dive into the future through imaginative storytelling: short, thought-provoking pieces that explore what’s next for industries like fashion, tourism, banking, and more. Inspired by real signals shaping our world today, each article examines the possibilities ahead and unpacks what they mean for brands, communication, and strategy.
dentsu X imagines tomorrow, today.
The aim of this design fiction exercise is to analyze how our society's weak signals could change if they were to become the norm in twenty- or thirty-years’ time. This exercise is not intended to predict the future, but rather to understand how brands could adapt to, or even play a role in, these possible transformations.
By 2053, pharmaceutical companies no longer limit themselves to providing treatments. They educate, coach, and support. Medication is no longer the ultimate goal, but merely one step, often unnecessary, in a fully integrated health journey focused on prevention.
Robots in schools, prevention credits, workplace wellbeing and emotion management schemes… this is what healthcare looks like in a society that has fully embraced a preventative approach. What if tomorrow’s laboratories offered a comprehensive, state-certified healthcare solution? What if, through highly personalized daily programs, health stopped being a response to illness and became a shared cultural value?
From Pill to Personalized Support: Laboratories in the Age of Prevention
Date: 2053, France
In less than thirty years, France has managed to rethink its healthcare system, placing prevention and personalized support at the heart of each citizen’s health journey.
This shift didn’t happen overnight, it gradually embedded itself into people’s everyday lives thanks to proactive public authorities and community organizations. Through repeated national awareness campaigns, strengthened health education in schools, and the wide deployment of accessible digital tools, the State has promoted a lasting collective momentum.
Gradually, app by app, message by message, the population has adopted these new habits, drawn by the promise of active, measurable, and valued health. The aim is no longer to treat illness, but to avoid it altogether - to thrive by understanding one’s physical and psychological needs on a daily basis. Naturally, this evolution has not eliminated the need for traditional curative medicine for serious and chronic conditions. But due to this profound paradigm shift, medication consumption for minor ailments has dropped sharply, prompting pharmaceutical companies to reinvent themselves around prevention.
This led to the creation of ANPA, the National Agency for Prevention and Support.
Tasked with regulating, certifying, and structuring a new market, ANPA serves as a public bridge between health brands, professionals, local authorities and citizens.
Within this new framework, some pharmaceutical companies failed to adapt. Trapped in a purely curative mindset and out of touch with citizens' emerging expectations, several players in the sector did not survive the upheaval. Conversely, others embraced change, completely redefining their approach. No longer merely producers of treatments, they began offering lifestyle programs and real-time personalized support.
The Reform: From Curative Model to the Rise of Prevention
In 2047, following a series of sobering assessments and growing awareness of the limitations of the curative model and unequal access to healthcare, the government launched Mission P.A.S. (Prevent, Support, Monitor).
Two years later, this led to the creation of ANPA, the National Agency for Prevention and Support. Tasked with regulating, certifying, and structuring a new market, ANPA serves as a public bridge between health brands, professionals, local authorities and citizens. Its role is to centralize the prevention ecosystem, oversee health brand programs, set reimbursement thresholds, and ensure territorial equity in access to services.
Each care pathway is approved by ANPA according to detailed program specifications combining ethics and effectiveness, and is accessible via the national Santé+ dashboard using a personal code. This dashboard goes beyond tracking to serve as a communication interface connecting a citizen to the State program, to others, and to the environment.
Each program shares a common base and follows a modular approach, offering options for citizens to subscribe to premium packages tailored to specific needs. These may include extra features such as one-on-one coaching, connected devices, or immersive experiences. While standard programs are covered by national insurance, premium options may also cover out-of-pocket costs, adjusted according to a person’s health profile, income level, or partnerships with mutual insurance providers and employers.
The programs operates on a preventative credit scheme, with credits automatically awarded for healthy behaviors (e.g., physical activity, balanced diet). Citizens can then use these credits to fund premium program modules.
Health in Daily Life: Meeting the French People
To better understand this transformation, we followed several citizens in their augmented daily lives.
Théa, age six, is enrolled in the ÉquiliM® program at her primary school in Lormes, a rural area. This morning, Théa picks her emotion card. Today, it’s joy. Excited, she joins Milo, a robotic otter, for an animal yoga workshop, an eagerly awaited weekly highlight.
“Théa is calmer, more focused, and happy to come to school,” observes her teacher, using the teacher app linked to the program. A premium version, offered in some urban schools, enhances these sessions with augmented reality capsules and interactive parental interfaces.
Léo, 42, an employee in a Parisian company, has fully integrated the NeuroEssen® prevention program into his routine. Every Friday afternoon, Léo looks forward to his active disconnection session offered via his Santé+ app. “It’s a precious moment where I can breathe and recenter myself far from daily stress,” he says. These sessions involve guided breathing exercises, screen-free, with binaural music. Discreet sensors on his temples allow him to monitor his cognitive load in real time and adjust accordingly.
Together with his wife Alba, Léo also follows the CyclePos® program which tracks hormonal cycles and oxidative stress using the DermaLoop, a discreet accessory that helps them tailor their diet, fitness routine, skincare, and rest periods. All these programs sync with their Santé+ dashboard and are partly funded by their employers and health insurers.
Camille, 67, a retiree living near Lyon, participates in the Graliva® program, developed by a micronutrient specialist. Initially skeptical, she recalls,“I was very reluctant at first. Past pharmaceutical scandals had made me wary. I wasn’t sure I wanted to share so much data about my health.” However, the transparency mandated by ANPA, the State’s strict data control, and the responsible choices of these new health brands reassured her. Three times a week, she now enjoys attending cognitive workshops with friends at the local community center. Her Memento headband, a chic accessory she barely notices, discreetly monitors her wellbeing. Recently, she’s also been using Noxea® to improve her sleep. Every evening, her Noctis Sphere diffuses a blend of sound and light waves, along with relaxing scents. “In the end, I feel heard and respected. I’ve regained confidence, and above all, I truly feel like I’m in charge of my wellbeing.” Due to Camille’s risk factors, her program tools are fully covered by the State.
Augmented Health, Transformed Society
These portraits illustrate a silent yet profound revolution in our relationships with healthcare, moving from a system centered on personalized treatment of illness to a collective culture of preventive health and wellbeing.
Beyond medical practices, in 2053 health management now permeates all areas of life both personal and social. Every citizen manages their health capital via an intuitive portal, incorporating simple daily habits for better nutrition, exercise, sleep, and emotional awareness.
Behind every method is a health brand, no longer simply a seller of medication, but a daily support partner, a curator of better living. And behind every health brand, a laboratory.
Yet, despite this promising model, new questions are beginning to surface:
How do we safeguard privacy and autonomy in a constantly monitored, connected world?
The challenge of tomorrow will likely lie in striking a subtle balance between personalized prevention and the right to disconnect so that health management remains a source of freedom, not an added burden.
Originally posted on CBNews on 15th April 2025.
