Healthy Aging and Public Policy
On 31 March, PCL Health held the second in our series of Healthy Aging events on Clubhouse. Joined by special guest and longevity expert Tina Woods, our discussion focused on the policy implications of healthy aging. Our first introductory session looked to define what we mean by healthy aging. In this second conversation we followed up by debating how policymakers can create the right frameworks for care for older adults to be integrated into the healthcare system, as well as the role that technology can play in facilitating this shift.
Our guest speaker Tina Woods is co-founder and CEO of Longevity International, a social enterprise bringing together start-ups, industry, academic and governmental stakeholders under one umbrella to provide a unified voice and coordinating vehicle for positive discourse and change to ensure the ‘longevity dividend’ is accessible to everyone. Longevity International acts as the Secretariat for the APPG for Longevity which Tina leads, and which launched The Health of the Nation Strategy supported by Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP, Secretary of State for Health and Care, in February 2020 to deliver 5 extra years of healthy life expectancy to all British citizens by 2035 while minimising health inequalities.
Tina began the discussion by speaking about some of the conclusions of her book, ‘Live Longer with AI: How artificial intelligence is helping us extend our healthspans and live better too’ which was published late last year. She argues passionately that we need to shift our attitudes towards older people so they are not seen as a burden so that some of the prejudices that exist around aging can gradually be swept away. In future, policymakers (and all of us) need to shift to seeing health as not about treating disease but rather as being our greatest personal and societal asset and something that we need to protect.
Technology and scientific advances are assisting in this process, for example by enabling us to collect bio-markers that help analyse patients’ behavioural and health patterns. Observing bio-markers alongside digital markers gives a more comprehensive view and insights into health trends. As an example, changes in spending patterns (such as repetitive purchases) could indicate the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
Likewise, as we see when we use remote monitoring, changes in a person’s vital measurements could indicate long-term health deteriorations. Technology is advancing rapidly and becoming part of our daily lives — including for older people — and Covid-19 has only accelerated that shift. New wearables and sensors evolve regularly and costs are decreasing significantly which means these types of benefits will be more widely available in the future whether used at home, in the NHS, in care homes or by employers. PCL Health’s Connected Care platform already enables carers, doctors and relatives to track these types of patterns and trends.
The vision for the future is one in which we can all seize opportunities no matter what our age. Technology will assist us much more seamlessly in our daily lives to promote wellness not just waiting until we are sick to be treated. Design will play a part too — why do wheelchairs have to be ugly, grey and boring? Many new products are being designed which address the needs and wants of an older population.
A recent report from Ernst and Young summed it up as follows: “Accustomed to on-demand and self-directed experiences in other areas of their digital lives, consumers expect something more; within the next decade, they believe that health care will be anchored around digitally enabled care, including virtual delivery, remote monitoring and interactive person-centred tools”.
Policymakers in Western countries are slowly shifting towards a greater understanding of what it means to cater to an older population — they need to because this is the constituency they will increasingly be representing. The question is are they getting there fast enough to ensure we can all maximise our potential to live longer, healthier lives?
Join us for the next Healthy Aging discussion on Clubhouse where we will discuss Driving Data Sovereignty in Digital Health with guest speaker Dr Alex Cahana. How do we create a patient centric infrastructure for integrated health data to help drive Data Sovereignty, personalised medicine and remote health monitoring? https://www.joinclubhouse.com/event/Mwo60A4W
