Hooked on Health Care - Designing Strategies for Better Health

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Jan 12, 2016
by Reem Kambris and Patrick Wilson
Hooked on Health Care - Designing Strategies for Better Health

Eight Health and Health Care session explores the culture of health versus the consumption of health care

Mother having blood pressure taken at Port Moresby General Hospital. Photo by Ness Kerton for AusAID

Experts from across public health, business, economics, and urban planning gather this week for the session Hooked on Health Care: Designing Strategies for Better Health from January 16 to 21, 2016, at Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg, Austria.

The eighth program of the multi-year series Health and Healthcare Innovation in the 21st Century aims to challenge the dependence of developed economies on healthcare and to promote investments in health throughout the world. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), health care costs have outpaced economic growth in all advanced economies since 1990, and low and middle-income economies are at risk of adopting such a model centered on curative care. 

The Salzburg session, held in partnership with The Health Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, will bring together 60 participants representing 15 countries. The Fellows will include government representatives and leaders from various fields such as public health policy, business, economy, and urban planning who will be aiming to re-set the agenda for health in the context of natural resources depletion, aging populations, and chronic diseases proliferation.

Participants will examine the current prevailing model of health care and quantify the social and economic benefits of health. They will then share insights on the current development and impacts of investments in preventive care and wellbeing, which comprise physical activity, housing, and community-connectedness. 

This session will attempt to re-focus global efforts to work on improving health rather than just a focus on health care and to help understand how this difference can improve health initiatives by taking into consideration wider determinants of health. As the pre-session briefing states: "While the journey towards health and not health care will be difficult and slow, it is an initiative that is too important to fail."  

Previous sessions in the Health and Healthcare Innovation series have explored the role of big data in driving a healthcare revolution in 2015, and defined new paradigms for behavioral and mental health care in 2014. This year, participants will identify health investment opportunities for governments, healthcare providers, businesses, and civil society institutions throughout the five days of the session. 

In addition to expert-led panel discussions, participants will form working groups to prepare strategic recommendations related to either themes or countries, which will culminate in the formulation of a Salzburg Statement that prompts governments, businesses, and civil society to take action.

Download pre-session briefing (PDF)


The Salzburg Global session Hooked on Health Care: Designing Strategies for Better Health is part of the multi-year series Health and Healthcare Innovation in the 21st Century. The session is being held in partnership with The Health Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. More information can be found here: www.salzburgglobal.org/go/559. You can follow all the discussions on Twitter with hastag #SGShealth.