Discussion around healthcare has traditionally centred on the access and cost or effectiveness of new therapies – be they high cost cancer treatments or digital technology to drive wellness. However, what is often forgotten is the actual ‘care’ part of healthcare: a patient’s hospital-at-home provision, an examination in a hospital, mental health counselling or physical therapy in a rehabilitation setting, which is what ‘care’ usually means to most patients. In fact, medicines and medical technology stand for a relatively small part of what we spend our money on in healthcare compared to the actual care of patients. However, most of the time, new therapies are often discussed separately from the models of care.

The demand for care will drastically increase as we live longer, get older, and more and more diseases become treatable and chronic. We are already seeing examples where local demand for healthcare in Western Europe is creating one of the biggest professional migrations since the Second World War, causing shortages in some of the origin countries in Eastern Europe.

This raises the question whether our current models of care are still fit for purpose. If not, what are the social implications of changing the care models, for example by increasing the expectations on care givers in the family? How can and will new technologies, such as sensors, AI and robotics change the way ‘care’ is delivered? How do we fund the increasing need for care and how can we make sure that the way we fund supports the right care models?

At the 2018 Life Science Talks to learn from key thought leaders in academia, payer and provider organisations, Pharma, Biotech and MedTech on their perspectives on the Future of Care and how we, as an industry can drive it.