In this episode, Lucien Engelen’s lecture at the Majlis Mohammed bin Zayed in November 2024 discusses the future of healthcare delivery. We examine the healthcare crisis marked by workforce shortages and systemic pressures. Lucien presents innovative views on how technology and retail integration can transform healthcare, highlighting that interventions make up only 6% of health outcomes while consuming 90% of budgets. We explore solutions like self-measurement kiosks and digital humans and discuss preventive health’s economic implications. This episode is crucial for healthcare professionals, policymakers, technologists, and anyone interested in healthcare’s future.

**Highlights:**

[**00:30] - Understanding the critical healthcare workforce crisis and its implications

[**01:03] - Exploring how educational institutions are addressing mental health challenges

[**05:36] - Diving into the disconnect between healthcare spending and health outcomes

[**15:00] - Examining innovative technological solutions transforming healthcare delivery

[**25:00] - Understanding the integration of healthcare services into retail environments

[**30:00] - Exploring the economic impact of preventive health approaches

[**33:39] - Addressing critical questions about data privacy and public trust

[**36:44] - Discussing performance metrics for evaluating personalized health initiatives

In this posting, I argue that training doctors and nurses separately can be problematic, leading to challenges in teamwork, communication, and understanding each other's roles. It outlines six key reasons why separate training is problematic: it reinforces role silos, hinders communication, creates a lack of understanding of each other's roles, inhibits patient-centred care, increases the risk of errors, and creates a barrier to healthcare system improvements. The excerpt then highlights the benefits of interprofessional education (IPE), where doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals train together on shared competencies, leading to enhanced collaborative skills and better preparedness for a more cohesive, effective, and responsive healthcare system.

Recent studies challenge the notion of radical life extension, suggesting we may be approaching biological limits. Analysis of mortality rates from 1990-2019 shows a slowdown in life expectancy growth across most populations. Only South Korea and Hong Kong briefly achieved the 0.3-year annual increase considered 'radical'. Experts estimate less than 15% of females and 5% of males may reach 100 years old this century without significant breakthroughs in aging biology. However, hope remains in emerging fields like geroscience and AI. As humans have historically overcome limits, the quest for extended lifespans continues, balancing scientific skepticism with technological optimism.

A groundbreaking report by WHO and ITU reveals that a modest investment of $0.24 per patient annually in digital health tools could save over 2 million lives from noncommunicable diseases in the next decade. These digital interventions, including telemedicine and mobile messaging, could also prevent 7 million hospitalizations. While 60% of countries have digital health strategies, integration remains challenging. The report emphasizes the need for resources and collaboration to unleash the full potential of digital health. With NCDs causing 74% of global deaths annually, this digital revolution offers a cost-effective solution to combat preventable diseases and transform healthcare delivery worldwide.

Sources:
https://www.who.int/news/item/23-09-2024-boosting-digital-health-can-help-prevent-millions-of-deaths-from-noncommunicable-diseases

1. https://www.who.int/publications/b/71552
2. https://uniatf.who.int/about-us/news/item/23-09-2024-new-task-force-report-going-digital-for-noncommunicable-diseases-the-case-for-action
3. https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/ICT-Applications/Pages/Publications.aspx
4. https://primaryhealthcare4people.org/publication/going-digital-for-noncommunicable-diseases-the-case-for-action/

I had Google NotebookLM create a podcast about two important documents, "The Boston Paradox" and "Healthy People in a Healthy Economy, A Blueprint for Action in Massachusetts", both from 2007 and 2009. All of this is still relevant and at the forefront of what we should do to create sustainable health(care), everywhere in the world. Something I coined our "Plumbers problem": we wait till something goes wrong, and then we start fixing the holes in the wall where the water gusts out, instead of somebody going into the basement, closing down the tab a bit (more).

Within 5 minutes, one can create a narrated podcast version of an article, presentation or even a book with Google's NotebookLM. I've used my 2018 book "Augmented Health (care), The End of the Beginning" in this example. In a 10-minute podcast the essence of my book (even though the algorithm had to make some choices ;-)

Tjeerd Bosklopper was appointed CEO Netherlands Non-life, Banking & Technology on 1 June 2020. In this role, Tjeerd is responsible for the Dutch Non-life, Banking business segments, and Customer & Commerce. He also remains responsible for innovation, digital transformation, and IT in the Netherlands.

#virtualcoffee: Dialogues about the Future of Health including innovation, the new era of digital-first, physical next, and reflections from outside of healthcare. Brief conversations, as if it were in a barista-café, always realistic but with a positive outlook. There are enough pessimistic channels out there already.

I’m your host, my name is Lucien Engelen: Assisting organizations, corporates, and governments worldwide to make a soft landing into the future. 40 years of healthcare experience: in Ambulance-services, dispatch centers, University Medical Center, and Singularity University. All mainly on the innovation intersection of technology and patient empowerment.
As a global keynote speaker and as an Edge fellow for Deloitte’s Center for the Edge, I support healthcare organizations, governments, corporates, and healthcare professionals in my role as a Global Strategist Digital Health, next to being faculty at SingularityU's Exponential Medicine.

I started during the COVID pandemic, checking in with friends, colleagues, and experts about topics that matter to them, and to me.

Distributed through Linkedin Live, Youtube, and Facebook with video and through Spotify, Apple podcast and other audio platforms or via my website www.transform.health

https://lucienengelen.com/category/podcast/virtual-coffee/

I had a great #virtualcoffee with Jarno Duursma, who wanted to interview me for his podcast. We combined our mission to share knowledge and did a podcast and a #virtualcoffee on Linkedin LIVE into one session.