Future Health Disucussion

Theme 1: Healthy living

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:05:47 +0000

This discussion is now closed.

Can we be optimistic about the future ability of public-health interventions to control obesity and prevent chronic diseases?

Futurists’ reasoning:

People in the most-developed countries will continue to resent government interference in their lives (although ‘nudging’ may be more acceptable), and anti-obesity campaigns will have little success – we will not be mobilised to take responsibility for our own weight.
Asian cultures will continue to take a more holistic and integrative approach (tackling issues in schools, workplaces etc.).
In future, the Asian health market may have a stronger focus on comprehensive – and compulsory – approaches.
African and Latin American countries will have neither the wealth of developed countries, nor the approach of many Asian governments that seek to influence personal behaviour.

C3 would like to begin a debate on the following controversial statement:
Compulsory, state-driven enforcement of healthy living is the only public-health approach that can reduce obesity, and will only work in societies with a strong respect for authority.

What do you think?

Theme 2: Weight-loss surgery

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:44:38 +0000

This discussion is now closed.

How will the relative effectiveness of different kinds of interventions dictate how obesity and chronic diseases are controlled and prevented – and is weight-loss surgery really a silver bullet?

Futurists’ reasoning:

Behaviour modification has not – and will not – been an effective tool in encouraging healthy living, and there are even signs that obesity is becoming the norm in some societies.
Safe and effective weight-loss medicines will appear in the 2020s, but cost will greatly restrict their use.
In contrast, new weight-loss surgery techniques will be safe, convenient, effective – and highly cost-effective.

C3 would like to begin a debate on the following controversial statement:
Health systems will not pay for long-term lifestyle drugs/interventions for people who eat too much and exercise too little – but they will invest in weight-loss surgery capacity.

What do you think?

Theme 3: Universal integrated care

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:45:14 +0000

This discussion is now closed.

Is it possible to expand the few good-practice examples where care for people with chronic conditions can be provided better by crossing the traditional divide between hospital and community services to have much wider application and impact?

Futurists’ reasoning:

Care for those with chronic conditions will become more standardised, and will be better able to deal with co-morbidities.
New, innovative medicines will compete with health-care reform for increasingly scarce resources.
Funding and reimbursement will depend on measured, positive health outcomes.

C3 would like to begin a debate on the following controversial statement:
Only IT systems combined with financial incentives from government and insurers will succeed in making integrated care that crosses traditional boundaries more universal: professionals and patients alone cannot achieve more than improvised local examples.

What do you think?

Theme 4: Low-cost innovation

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:46:07 +0000

This discussion is now closed.

Where will the innovations emerge in chronic disease prevention and care, particularly for developing countries?

Futurists’ reasoning:

It is inconceivable that the best available solutions will be available to the millions of people with diabetes and other chronic conditions.
Large-scale, market based basic care services provide consistent quality, and are accepted by most patients in low-resource settings.
Collaboration between organisations with ingenuity and local knowledge of working in low-resource settings and multinational companies with skill and experience in large-scale execution, could lead to solutions that are both viable and sustainable in low-resource settings.

C3 would like to begin a debate on the following controversial statement:
Most countries will not be able to afford the expensive treatments that have worked in developed countries, so it will be new providers – such as Walmart – that will develop the low-cost, ‘good enough’ solutions that will be needed.

What do you think?