Population ageing is often seen as bad for the economy and unsustainable for health systems. But is this really the case? Debora Miranda, Communications Officer at the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies speaks about a new webinar series focusing on the economics of ageing. And in part two - WHO’s European Office for the Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) look at big data and its potential impact on the future of NCD diagnosis and treatment.
Find out more about the Economics of Ageing webinar series and sign up for the next sessions: https://eurohealthobservatory.who.int/observatoryweeklywebinars_new?pastpage=1
Read about big data and the new NCDs dashboard: https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/Life-stages/pages/news/news/2022/01/noncommunicable-diseases-in-53-countries-whoeurope-presents-new-visual-data-tool/
Population ageing is often seen as bad for the economy and unsustainable for health systems. But is this really the case? Debora Miranda, Communications Officer at the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies speaks about a new webinar series focusing on the economics of ageing. And in part two - WHO’s European Office for the Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) look at big data and its potential impact on the future of NCD diagnosis and treatment.
Find out more about the Economics of Ageing webinar series and sign up for the next sessions: https://eurohealthobservatory.who.int/observatoryweeklywebinars_new?pastpage=1
Read about big data and the new NCDs dashboard: https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/Life-stages/pages/news/news/2022/01/noncommunicable-diseases-in-53-countries-whoeurope-presents-new-visual-data-tool/
Hello, and welcome to the health and Europe podcast. I'm your host, Greg Bian. We've launched this podcast of bringing the latest on w ha's work in the European region. Our region is broaden diverse from the Mid-Atlantic and stretching. As far as the Chinese border work with fascinating and driven individuals and groups. This podcast is about hearing their stories and how they might impact your day to day life. Many people, the population aging is a bad thing for economies saying that the older people get the more they use health services and with fewer working age people to support them economies start suffer. But is this really the case? A new webinar series from the European observatory on health systems and policies seeks to challenges, narrative explaining how to support aging populations while pointing out how much older E point society have to offer. If you haven't heard of them before the European observatory is a partnership hosted by w O that specializes in the development of health systems in Europe, polling and sharing knowledge across borders. I'm joined by Deborah Miranda communications officer at the European observatory in Brussels. Hi, Deborah, how are you?
Speaker 2:Hi, Greg. Thanks for having me on behalf of the observatory. I'm good. Thanks. And
Speaker 1:You great. I'm good. Thank you. So, um, we'll just kick off, firstly, explaining a little bit about this series. So what is the economics of aging series and why is the European observatory on health systems and policies hosting these now?
Speaker 2:Right. So, um, in short, and as you just, as you just said, and for those who may not be aware, the observatory works to make sense of the evidence as we like to call it, um, evidence surrounding health systems and policies in the w H O European region. So basically we want to support policy makers in making decisions that are informed by the best available evidence. And aging is just one of several topics that our team works on. And in this context, it falls under our work on health and economy. We now have a, a pretty rich portfolio of publications on aging of which I would highlight, for example, a study called aging and health, the politics of better policies, uh, which is a book we launched last September, it's available on our website and also an up coming so very fresh new policy brief that's being released in the next few days on the costs of health and social care at the end of life. Um, this work and actually this whole series is being led by John Silas, who is an economist and runs the observator London hub, which is one of our two research hubs together with Berlin. And, um, the economics of aging series is in fact, a slightly new format in the webinars that the observatory has been running during this pandemic with, um, all this material that we have on aging this time, instead of one webinar, we are hosting three across three weeks, um, on this topic, as I said, we really want to promote evidence based policy making. So in this series, we investigate key policy questions associated with population aging. And we do this by bringing together evidence from research and country experie is, which is actually a model that we use in all our webinars. And this of course, may of interest, not only to policy makers, but also researchers and members of civil society. Um, we also review, what's known about the health and long term care costs of older people and many of the benefits of healthy aging for the economy and for society. And finally, we also look at policy options that contribute to the sustainability of care systems in this context of changes in population demographic changes. Um, we look at policy options that reduce costs that could be avoided in care, and very importantly, policy options that support older people because it's important that they can continue to contribute meaningfully to society.
Speaker 1:That's great. So, and I know the first webinar took place this week and, and focused on funding healthcare for an aging population. What are some of the options that are being considered?
Speaker 2:Um, you're right. So our webinars cover the, the revenue to pay for care, which is the first webinar that you just mentioned, the expenditure on health and social care and the politics of pop population aging. The first one, as you said, that just took place this week addressed, um, a common worry that policy makers have about where we find the money to care for age in population, because an aging population may mean that the active workforce we have is smaller or less productive, and this could ultimately reduce revenues coming through tax. This is a common interpretation of the situation. One option we normally hear about is delaying the age in which people can retire as this would understandably save money being spent on our pensions while also keeping people in the formal labor markets for longer. Um, so the first webinar looks at the, these policy options that are available and the impact that they have. For example, if we do increase the retirement age, whether those options will make health financing more sustainable, how much the revenues for health will effectively decline as people get older populations get older and how we can actually support older people to remain in the workforce. And this ties in with some myths surrounding the economics of aging that this series tries to address. Um, particularly that the idea that population aging means our economies will get worse as we will see. It's not the size of your label labor force that, uh, that matters, but rather the health of that labor force.
Speaker 1:And, um, so moving on from that, but, but also linked in it in a way is, is how costs of caring for an aging population can be controlled. Um, what are some of the patterns that we're seeing here?
Speaker 2:Yes. Um, so from revenue, we move on to expenditures. So basically once we have the funds, how do we use them? When we talk about population aging, we often hear that health spending is unsustainable. However, and this is where it gets interesting research has shown that population aging is not a major driver of growth in health expenditure. That being said the way aging societies affect how much we spend on health depends on multiple factors. For example, policy choices about how health services are delivered and the prices that are paid for services, medicines, and technologies. Again, how population aging affects health financing is a policy choice rather than, uh, a so-called inevitable consequence of aging societies. And the second webinar will address the implications of these findings. So, uh, so that we can better understand how we can contain the health and long term care costs associated with population aging. And, um, one of the public, the, one of the publications being presented here is the policy brief. I mentioned earlier, this is led by John Silas, from P and observatory, and also, um, by authors from the Trinity, from Trinity college, Dublin in Ireland, including professor Charles Norman and this policy brief will unveil how we can, uh, what we can do differently to improve outcomes and actually reduce costs in end of life care. That's
Speaker 1:Really interesting to what you say about the, the policy aspect. And, um, I mean, I know this series, uh, addresses the economics of aging and, and, and of webinar on the, the politics of, of aging. What is the role of politics and what does it say about a potential conflict between generations as, as the title of webinar suggests?
Speaker 2:So this is a, a thought provoking one and largely to draws on the recent study. I mentioned called aging and health, the politics of better policies. If you think about it, aging populations are often presented as a challenge that we can only address if we dismantle the welfare state, but this undermines precisely the institution that was set to enable longevity in the first place, right? So these views of population aging are quite divisive and alarmists, and often based on stereotypes and anecdotes, that don't really have evidence to back them up. What we try to unveil here is that perhaps the problem is political and exposes the challenge of creating fair, sustainable, and effective policies for people of all ages short. The, the problem is not that we have more and more older people, but that we leave in very unequal societies. And that's why this webinar questions, whether politics of aging is creating conflict between generations. Societies can choose policies that benefit people of all ages promoting equity, both within and between those generations. Now, to know how we can achieve these policies, we'll have to hear the speakers, um, in this case from the universities of Michigan and Pennsylvania in the us and the university of Oxford and the health foundation in the UK. So I hope those who are listening can join the debates.
Speaker 1:Thanks, Deborah. And, um, so just, just finally, so, so people are aware, uh, as we know, one webinar has already taken place, but how can people learn more and, and join the next two?
Speaker 2:Yes, we invite every want to join the next webinar, which is called can the costs of caring for an aging population be controlled. It takes place on Tuesday, the 25th of January at 12 noon that's central European time. And the third and last webinar called is the politics of aging creating conflict between generations will be on the 1st of February, also a Tuesday, but this time at 4:00 PM central European time. So our speakers based in the us don't have to wake up in the middle of the night. And of course, because we believe our webinars can be useful to, to regions outside Europe as well. Um, don't worry if you missed the first one, you will have missed on a, a pretty dynamic interaction with our speakers, but the recording will be available on our websites, which is, um, health, observatory.eu, but I hope the listeners can join the next two live sessions. We have some, some great speakers lined up for you.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. It sounds the case. Well, thank you so much, Deborah. And, uh, we look forward to the next series. Thanks,
Speaker 3:Greg. I,
Speaker 1:Last week, you may remember that we had a piece on staying healthy in the metaverse. In this episode, we ask what might big data hold for the future of healthcare and the diagnosis of noncommunicable diseases like cancer, diabetes, or cardiovascular disease. Are we looking towards a future where data can help improve early diagnosis and improve healthcare in general, w H O's European office for the prevention and control of NTDs, along with the ministry of health of the Russian Federation, host the conference on tackling noncommunicable diseases with digital solutions, Alexandra Olson, and Eagle. Christov two communications offices from w H O explore big data and new entities D which provides data on risk factors and cost effective interventions over to Alexandra and Eagle.
Speaker 4:Hi there, you're listening to the podcast from the w H O N CD office in Moscow. And this time we're going to talk about what big data is and why it can completely change global healthcare. Our hosts in the studio are Alexandra Olson and ego Koff.
Speaker 5:Big data is a rather fashionable topic among those who are interested in modern technologies. Usually this term refers to a huge amount of digital data sometimes without a clear structure, which can be analyzed with the help of modern computer algorithms leading to some useful conclusions. For example, analyzing data on the movement of cars in the city can help road services, better organized traffic and reduce the number of traffic jams in
Speaker 4:The context of health care data provides many opportunities. The most obvious example is that collecting detailed information about patients will help doctors quickly make the correct diagnosis and prescribe effective treatment experts have high hopes for surveillance databases that will help determine the risks of developing noncommunicable, ceases or NCDs.
Speaker 5:Since SCDs are closely linked to diets, physical activity, as well as alcohol consumption and tobacco use information on these lifestyle indicators could help save tens of thousands of lives each year. Imagine that you receive a message from a reliable source, which lists individual risks to your health, some specific databases with specific recommendations. When should you, for instance, make a GP or medical specialist appointment, I would definitely pay attention to those recommendations. Professor Ron baller at the w O collaborating center on non-communicable disease or research prevention and control in Israel explains how predictive preventive care works. We
Speaker 6:Actually are able today to provide population health, to look at the entire population, look at the digital data on this population, identify patients, its risk of future deterioration, future deterioration of cardiovascular disease. Someone who may in a very high likelihood have a myocardial infarction in the coming year. Somebody who is been very high likelihood to have, uh, chronic renal failure and renal insufficiency within the next five years. Sometimes even deteriorations that are close by a C O P D exacerbation that will happen in the next three days because there's some hint that tell us that the patient is about to deteriorate the new innovative tools, allow us to collect the data, analyze the data and predict an incoming event. And then by Teva proactively approaching those patients, we are able to provide them with preventive, uh, simple, non painful and not costly interventions early, that would prevent costly, painful, debilitating interventions too late in the disease path. Pathology
Speaker 4:Course, this would allow medical professionals to spend less time on treatment and more time on disease prevention. In other words, more people would be able to notice and prevent the disease before there is a need for hospitalization, which is great. At the same time, health workers will have more time to pay attention to each of their better understand their condition and prescribe more effective treatment.
Speaker 5:The w H O European office for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases has developed a special tool based in quality data that countries can use to get a quick overview of the situation with entities and policies in their country. And another C IRA's regional advisor for city surveillance at the w H O regional office for Europe explains how digital data helps not only doctors, but also governments.
Speaker 7:The city dashboard contains data on premature mortality, biological, and behavioral risk factors for I, but it contains also the data about implementation of w H bias. So it gives you a very nice cascade of the V burden levels of risk factors and policy options that are currently implemented. So the policy makers can understand what are the most burning issues and where are the biggest opportunities to for intervention. When we speak about the interventions to prevent, uh, and control noncommunicable diseases, we know pretty well, what are the most cost effective interventions? Those are the so-called w H O best buy. And for every dollar invested in prevention of NCDs, we get$7 of return of investment in the macro economy. Therefore, it is very important that we know which interventions are currently implemented at population level, and that we proud those interactions.
Speaker 4:So if we learn how to use databases effectively and begin to use health information carefully and efficiently, it has the potential to improve health systems considerably and empower people living with NCDs to manage their conditions. This is one of the main topics of the digital for NCD conference in Moscow, on the 14th and 15th of December by the w O European office for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases, incorporation with the ministry of health of the Russian Federation.
Speaker 5:This was the second episode of the podcast based on the discussions at the conference in Moscow. You'll find other episodes in the w H O playlists and on all the major streaming platforms stay tuned.
Speaker 7:That's all we have time for thanks to
Speaker 1:All our guests. If you want to find out more about any of the topics in this episode, you can do so on the w O Europe website, that's Euro dot w O do I NT and on the European observatory site, Euro health observatory dot w H O do I NT or check out the links in the show notes? The music during the second segment on big data is curse sea of right games, beavers are rating. And if you like what you've heard, make sure to recommend us to a friend or a colleague, thanks for listening. And until next time, stay safe and stay healthy.