Jan 15, 2018

How would our children solve today’s healthcare challenges?

Estimated reading time: 1-3 minutes

If we want to challenge the healthcare status quo and build a healthier and more sustainable world – maybe we need to harness our inner child inquisitiveness.

As adults, we sometimes tend to be confined by perceived limitations, assumptions and conditioned thinking. We can lose the open-minded inquisitiveness that make young children so good at forming friendships and collaborating. It’s with this kind of thinking in mind that we’re asking children to question why things are the way they are in today’s healthcare world, and for their big ideas on how to solve some of its challenges.

Coinciding with the start of the World Economic Forum this month – and as a continuation of the 2017 #YoungWEF campaign – we will start comparing the way adults and children view healthcare challenges, which will inspire different, even more boundary-breaking approaches and solutions for the future.

Healthcare challenges

This year as Philips we’re focused on exploring three main healthcare challenges, namely:

Our aging population – while today approximately 962 million people are over the age of 60 in a global population of 7 billion, this number will reach 2.1 billion by 2050¹. How can we better manage our aging society, both individually and collectively, and move away from viewing aging solely as a time of inevitable decline to one that can be rich with new innovations and possibilities?
Access to affordable care – how can we use innovation and technology to drive more inclusive healthcare for all, helping to improve access for everyone on our planet, wherever and whenever they need it – in humanitarian settings, emerging markets, and in deprived areas of mature markets?
Transformation from volume-based to value-based care – how can we drive better outcomes at a lower cost while enhancing the patient and staff experience, delivering the right care in the right place, at the right time?

Through responsible leadership and listening today, particularly to the ideas and insights of our future generations, we can together make a healthier and more sustainable world tomorrow, and bring meaningful innovations to the table as part of our mission to improve 3 billion lives per year by 2025.

Take part

Share with us your children’s questions and ideas around these healthcare challenges on social media, by mentioning #YoungWEF and Philips.

^{^[1]} https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-population-prospects-2017.html

About Innovation Matters

Innovation Matters delivers news, opinions and features about healthcare, and is focused on the professionals who work within the industry, as well as Philips as a cutting-edge health technology organization. From interviews with industry giants to how-to guides and features powered by Philips data, our goal is to deliver interesting, educational and entertaining content to empower and inspire all those who work in healthcare or related industries.