Samtale om folkehelse

Denne sesjonen vil handle om hvordan vi håndterer folkehelse i fremtiden, og hvordan vi jobber med forebygging.

Tre ildsjeler som jobber med bedre folkehelse – fra Norge, Nederland og Finland.

Sesjonen vil foregå (delvis) på engelsk. This session is (partly) in English.

Moderator: Eldrid Schei, Prosjektleder, Helse Sør-Øst

Entering the time of growth in the number of elderly people and a shortage of health personnel

v/ Mina Gerhardsen, generalsekretær, Nasjonalforeningen for folkehelsen

In Norway we have more disease than we need to have, and we die before we should. As much as 90 percent of our disease burden is linked to non-communicable diseases, which are influenced by lifestyle. This means that we have a great potential to prevent more.

We are now entering a time of growth in the number of elderly people and a shortage of health personnel. Technology can remedy some of this, but we must also work much more systematically to reduce the extent of illness and the need for health services.

Here we have great opportunities by systematically making use of the knowledge we already have, to contribute to better health choices and to use data and technology to gain better knowledge for better planning and accuracy in measures.

Anticipatory and preventive services for elderly people living at home in Finland

v/ Dr. Toini Harra, Metropolia University of Applied Sciences

Finland has come a long way in building anticipatory and preventive age technology for elderly people living at home. The body wearable agile sensor technology and sensors in the home monitor person’s activity and daily activities and give the resident himself, his loved ones, and the health services the opportunity to get information about  the normal state and its changes. The smart algorithms create patterns of individual’s daily activities and routines. Through observation and analysis of daily performance it detects functional and cognitive disorders, helps care teams to identify changes in health and wellbeing so they can focus on elderly in need of more care.

The data can be used to monitor and predict changes in functional capacity and predict deterioration of functional capacity or possible illness even at an early stage. Data provides information to support decision-making both in daily service situations and in the planning of service guidance, so that health services can be targeted better and with higher quality where help is most needed.

The presentation gives examples of how Finnish municipalities utilize sustainable and innovative technology to support housing and a good life for the elderly. In addition, it will be presented how the technology suppliers and end users co-developing more user-friendly solutions for better aging in an EU-funded project called: HIPPA-Remote. The Remote Services for Product Developers to Support Senior Housing.

Health is in all policies

v/ Matthijs Zwier, Strategic Partner, Municipality of Utrecht

The focus for my ‘talk’ will be the city of Utrecht and the activities involving participation of its citizens in health. The city of Utrecht works with the perspective of ‘health in all policies’, this is translated as ‘healthy urban living for everybody!’. This involves major discussions about the value of Thick Data versus Big Data. And the importance of social innovation in relation to technical/digital innovation. The Healthpact Utrecht is a nice example of this ‘movement’. The statement ‘A healthy city is a choice!