World Telecommunication Day and Healthy Aging
By Michael Hodin
This year, the UN’s celebration of all things digital — World Telecommunication and Information Society Day — will be a landmark event because of its ground-breaking theme: Digital technologies for older persons and healthy ageing. This theme recognizes our vital opportunity to turn the 20th century miracle of longevity into the 21st century miracle of healthy longevity by harnessing the power of digital innovation for all ages.
For some, technology and aging might seem like a contradiction: “isn’t tech only the arena of the young?” In fact, the two are inherently linked and offer tremendous potential benefits, but — as the UN recognizes with its Decade of Healthy Ageing — we must overcome widespread ageism to realize those benefits. There are ample reasons to do so. Tech innovators can reach a huge and largely under-tapped market; policymakers, civil society, and health systems can ensure sustainable models for care delivery, the workforce, and national finances; and, most importantly, older adults can find the solutions they need “to stay healthy, connected, and independent — physically, emotionally, and financially.”
In recognition of the milestone, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) 2022 Forum held a high-level panel, kicking off a year-round awareness campaign. Ms. My Linh Kha, SVP and General Manager, Japan-Asia-Pacific for Amgen, who represented private-sector innovators and GCOA at the panel, highlighted the imperative for new digital innovations in this area:
“Now that we are in the second year of the Decade of Healthy Ageing, we look to the role digital health can play as a central part of 21st century healthcare where healthy longevity will depend on a predict-and-prevent model that has wellness and prevention at its core.”
- My Linh Kha, SVP and General Manager, Japan-Asia-Pacific, Amgen
For historical perspective, consider that this date marks the creation of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in 1865, pre-dating the UN by some 80 years. Just as the ITU was founded because of a then-revolutionary technology, the telegraph, this year’s event is a time to reflect on how we can turn our era’s disruptive technologies to the opportunities and challenges in a world of more old than young.
To achieve that goal, several areas are essential:
· Harness digital innovation for a predict-and-prevent care model.
While we’ve moved on from the telegraph, healthcare delivery is still too often mired in an antiquated model where acute care is provided in reaction to health emergencies, often in hospitals. This model is a poor and costly fit for age-related health challenges. Instead, health systems should strive to integrate digital health innovations, at scale, to promote wellness, prevent chronic diseases, and, when needed, proactively monitor and intervene before those diseases reach an acute state. Deploying these digital solutions for wellness, diagnostics, and remote care will be key to managing the looming burden of osteoporosis and fragility fractures, cardiovascular disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and other health challenges from vision deterioration to the increased risk of communicable diseases as flu, shingles, pneumococcal pneumonia and now, of course Covid-19.
· Speed health advances with digital tools. AI, global research platforms, wearables, mobile apps, and other technologies are driving much-needed advances for new medicines and vaccines, in-home care, diagnostics, and clinical trials. Armed with these tools, innovators can collaborate across sectors to develop the breakthrough solutions for devastating age-related diseases, faster and more efficiently than previously possible.
· Equip people for healthy aging throughout the life course. In addition to driving research, including improving biomedical clinical trials, digital technologies can serve as the everyday tools that help people learn about, implement, and maintain the concrete changes that support healthy aging. In turn, research participants who choose to share their data can help to unlock scientific and medical advances, creating a virtuous cycle.
· Include older people in the tech design process, distribution, and use. This co-design step is essential for developing technologies that actually work for older people, meeting their day-to-day needs, priorities, and preferences. Every company and organization should be considering how it can recruit older experts or research participants with lived experience to help inform the co-design process.
Best of all, today’s celebration is just the beginning. Based on the insights shared by the WSIS panelists, and the ongoing work by the UN and a diverse set of innovators, our mission now is to continue developing, refining, and scaling the digital solutions that work best for the needs of older people and healthy aging around the world.
