Making a longer life worth living: Lets try to eliminate
unnecessary suffering, together Alejandro Jadad MD DPhil FRCPC
FCAHS University Health Network and University of Toronto or
Facebook, Twitter and Skype: ajadad LinkedIn: alexjadad Cell phone:
We are putting more years into our lives Death by success? We are
living long enough to accumulate diseases 5 Wellbeing Individual
Family Community Planet We must put more life into our years
Wellbeing Individual Family Community Planet Wellness system
(enabling an enjoyable life) Health care system (enabling a
disease-free life) We need a wellness system along our health care
system Wellbeing Health care system Health promotion Disease
prevention Early detection Diagnosis Treatment
RehabilitationBereavement There is a lot of room to disrupt the
health care system This is not meeting expectations Wellbeing
Health care system Health promotion Disease prevention Early
detection Diagnosis Treatment RehabilitationBereavement There is a
lot of room to disrupt the health care system Wellbeing Wellness
system Active pursuit of joy Sharing Questioning Exploring Learning
Creating Disrupting Making a difference There is a wide open field
for the pursuit of joy Wellbeing Wellness system Active pursuit of
joy Sharing Questioning Exploring Learning Creating Disrupting
Making a difference Elimination of unnecessary suffering Relaxing
Forgiving Relieving Offloading Huge opportunities to eliminate
unnecessary suffering We cannot continue neglecting symptom control
Journal of Palliative Care 21(2):80-7, 2005 Mental disorders: an
invisible crowd! Depression is now the leading cause of disability
in the world 30% of people worldwide affected by mental disorders
Biggest contributors to morbidity in the world (at least 28% of
global burden of disability) At least two thirds without treatment
o 67% untreated in the United States o 74% in Europe o 90 to 99% in
China Caregivers: the largest invisible minority! 20% of the
population Most are women, over 45 and employed They absorb one
third of the overall health costs A few receive support from the
system 50% acknowledge emotional distress and physical problems Who
is liable? How could our innovations support them? Wellbeing
Wellness system Active pursuit of joy Sharing Questioning Exploring
Learning Creating Disrupting Making a difference Elimination of
unnecessary suffering Relaxing Forgiving Relieving Offloading
Coping with unavoidable suffering Accepting Tolerating Compensating
Transcending There is a wide open field for a wellness system
Drastic measures are emerging To cure sometimes, to alleviate
often, to console always Unknown origin [attributed to Hippocrates,
Par, Nightingale, Trudeau, and many others] The path to The
Singularity must be fulfilling eHealth: lots of tools, but no
viable business model We lack good evaluation frameworks The
Maimonides Project Accelerating the transformation of the health
and systems, together Ben Shahn ( ) in 1954 Radical glocal
innovation Plausible scenarios Living Laboratories Stakeholder
input Feasible options Business models Risk mitigation plan A
global effort to reduce the impact of polypathology
[www.opimec.org]www.opimec.org Radical glocal innovation Learning
from living laboratories... Radical glocal innovation Glocal
encounters to align agendas and ideas How could we support the US?
" The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the
tides, gravitation, we shall harness the energies of love. And, on
that day, for the second time in the history of the world, man will
have discovered fire. " Could we build a Noosphere? Pierre Teilhard
de Chardin ( ) Will we be able to harness the power of our minds
and tools to promote optimal levels of joy for all, together?
