Building a Smarter Health and Wellness Future
Media Advisory 11-005 Building a Smarter Health and Wellness Future
High-speed and mobile applications, connected devices, social networks and related cutting-edge smart technological developments are offering new opportunities for providing health and wellness services. They promise more efficient, effective and less costly healthcare. New technologies also have the potential to address some of the key challenges of the world's aging societies. How do we best capitalize on these and future technologies to realize and even surpass these promises, for the good of recipients and care providers alike? Can we learn to deliver innovative ways of meeting patients' needs for care and support in the context of health systems that are committed to the provision of care but have limited resources?
On Feb. 15-16, 2011, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will assemble policy-makers, leading academics and representatives from private sector organization, including experts from 15 OECD countries, to discuss how new technologies can provide unique and unprecedented opportunities for healthcare in the United States and in other countries throughout the world. Sessions will explore how we may develop an environment and services that can help address the health and wellness challenges of our aging society, stimulating collaboration and innovation on a global scale. The OECD and the NSF will build on discussions at the workshop to identify priorities for an international research and policy agenda.
Specifically, the workshop aims to:
- Review impacts of these technoloogies over the next decade
- Discuss emerging models of care
- Analyze what is needed to strategically move forward
- Consider the role of government in shaping policies and programs
- Promote good governance and institutional frameworks that facilitate technology development and deployment
- Collaborate with those in the international community to define an international research and policy agenda
Highlights include:
- "The Urgent Realities of our Health and Wellness Future," with Mark McClellan, Director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution
- "Realizing the Vision of a Learning Healthcarwe System" with Charles P. Friedman, Chief Scientific Officer at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technologies
- A round table debate--involving the audience--about how to prevent siloed approaches and increase the value that patients/consumers derive from the new technical and socio-technical developments, moderated by Steve Lohr, with the New York Times
- A roundtable discussion of the key messages for an international research and policy agenda
For more detail, review the full agenda.
Journalists interested in attending this invitation-only event must respond to Lisa-Joy Zgorski, lisajoy@nsf.gov no later than the close of business on Mon., Feb. 14.
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About the OECD. The 34-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) brings together the governments of countries around the world committed to democracy and a free market economy. It promotes sustainable economic growth, employment, higher living standards, financial stability, global economic development and growth in world trade. Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the OECD provides a forum for governments to pursue best practices through in-depth comparative policy analysis and to coordinate domestic and international policies. It is committed to "Better Policies for Better Lives."
Provided by NSF
