Month: February 2016

The 4^th annual Lake Nona Impact Forum concluded with a call to the innovators shaping future health technologies and the physical shape of our communities. Panelists included entrepreneurs from startup to Fortune 500 and researchers delving into the factors that truly make a community – and a population – healthy.

A core theme of Friday’s discussion focused on the challenges on innovation, celebrating those who took ideas and turned them to action. From the vast teams at PepsiCo and Nestle to how Pfizer sees collaboration as the road to patient-centric solutions, companies see the rise of individual “patient-activists” and “citizen-scientists” demanding a voice in their health and purchases. The R&D ecosystem continues to grow in unprecedented ways, with patient engagement and cross-industry collaborations bringing new approaches to tackling diseases. Innovation takes time and partnerships to be successful, panelists agreed, but transformative change requires entrepreneurs to bring new ideas together and bridge industries.

Health technology innovations is one area where that optimism is being realized. Singularity University’s Dr. Daniel Kraft detailed how health care is transforming from an intermittent, reactive process to a continual and proactive one. Technology is driving that process, he said, as is the preventative approach and growing on-demand technologies like 3D printing and telemedicine. The next step in health and prevention is patients owning their own data through advances in wearables and accessible diagnostics. Controlling personal data and health information allows patients to better shift their behavior, a process through which connected, digital health simply becomes “health.”

Improving those behavioral health factors should include considering our physical environments as well, says Dan Buettner, author of “Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest.” His research identified the Power 9 lessons, covering the shared traits of the longest-lived people. Key among them are natural exercise, a sense of purpose, stress reduction, a thoughtful, primarily plant-based diet, and connection to family, faith and friends. While all communities may not be positioned to execute all nine perfectly, targeting changes in our choices and built spaces can have a dramatic effect on the health and happiness of our populations.

To fully transform health care, all of these changes discussed at the Impact Forum require action: better data collection, improved patient engagement, more powerful computing and strong new collaborations. The purpose of the Lake Nona Impact Forum is to keep these conversations going throughout the year, to prioritize and act upon them, test and refine them here at Lake Nona Medical City’s “living lab,” and make an impact on the world.

Thursday’s full day of talks and programming exemplified the diversity of topics and leaders that have made the Lake Nona Impact Forum a destination for innovators spanning the ecosystem of health care.  The impact of entrepreneurship and technology, the hidden conditions to improve personal health, and the influence of sports performance drove the day’s conversations, ending with a series of high-energy brainstorming sessions between presenters and delegates.

A central theme to the day’s talks focused on the benefits patients receive from access to new technology and personal data.  Developing applications in genomics and technology-aided access to health data creates a greater democratization of care with a future of on-demand medicine.  Patients are shown to be better motivated as their care becomes personal, so giving all populations, including aging populations and those with mental health issues, improved abilities to engage their health is key to improving overall outcomes.

Several presenters offered different approaches to defining health and how to change it from the inside out.  From our physical environment and the ways Delos is reimagining our built spaces to increasing understanding of the microbiome and diet’s impact on both physical and emotional health, the effects of outside factors on health is more apparent than ever.

Deepak Chopra went deeper, challenging attendees to look within and examine how our thoughts affect us.  He championed the benefits of sleep, meditation and our emotions to our health, demonstrating its effects through a guided meditation exercise.  Chopra and others argued we consider the often overlooked, intangible keys to health and longevity:  happiness and gratitude.

Other discussions focused on the costs of chronic and preventable conditions, and the different approaches to improving individual and community health.  The often under resourced mental health industry sees both recurring costs and increased health risks, demanding champions to ensure mental health issues receive the same attention and treatment options as other conditions.  Genomic research offers an incredible impact on early diagnoses and treatments, recognizing risk factors in disease and mental health, and applications of cancer therapies.  And a wellness solution that is perhaps hiding in the open is the transformative power of sport, which can create a confident, joyful and healthy society.

The day concluded with interactive “lightning sessions,” bringing presenters and attendees together to develop actionable items in each of the week’s core topics.  The breakouts centered on Connected Healthy Communities, Future Innovation Ecosystems, and Sports & Performance with each group producing dozens of ideas to move innovation forward.  As a direct response to the recurring appeals for mission-driven innovation from the Lake Nona Institute  many of these ideas will be developed and implemented at the ‘living lab’ that is Lake Nona to help ensure the Impact Forum lives up to its name of making an impact both locally and around the world.

International Organization Hopes to Encourage Positive Lifestyle Changes that Reduce Health Risks and Promote Healthy Living Habits

The International Bipolar Foundation (IBPF) today announced the launch of its free, online Behavioral Health Quality of Life Tool (BHQL) to empower people struggling with bipolar disorder to assess the associated risks of their current lifestyle choices and encourage them to embrace lifestyle changes to lead live longer, healthier lives. The announcement was made today at the Lake Nona Impact Forum, where the nation’s top thought leaders in health and wellness gather to discuss and develop actionable solutions to improve health, wellness and sustainable living.

The BHQL tool — available on the foundation’s website: http://ibpf.org/bhqlt– is a detailed survey that identifies a user’s unhealthy habits and provides individualized suggestions for a healthier lifestyle, such as smoking cessation and weight loss. Research has shown that the prevalence of cigarette smoking among individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) is two to three times higher than the rate in the general population, and that more than 80 percent of people with serious mental illnesses are overweight or obese, which contributes to them dying at three times the rate of the overall population.

Those who complete the survey can sign up for a weekly newsletter that offers ongoing support for incorporating healthier habits, whether it’s related to diet, sleep, or stress or medication management.

IBPF has partnered with Lake Nona Institute, a nonprofit, community-focused organization that incubates, activates and measures the impact of innovative technologies and programs that can become global models for building healthy, sustainable and inspired communities, to launch this needed health resource for those with mental illness, who can be prone to a variety of damaging behaviors, including poor eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle.

“Life expectancy increased dramatically in the U.S., from 51 years in 1910 to nearly 79 years by 2012,” explains IBPF Chairman Muffy Walker. “Unfortunately, these advances in the general population do not translate to those struggling with Serious Mental Illness, whose life expectancy still lags well behind according to the NIH,” she added .

Walker points to a groundbreaking 2015 study of mortality statistics cited by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) that found the median reduction in life expectancy among those with mental illness was 10.1 years, and that 8 million people prematurely each year as a result of their mental illness.

“People with mental illness are more likely to suffer from a range of damaging health issues, including heart disease, diabetes and hypertension, and they are less likely to go for medical appointments and follow up care. That needs to change. Having a severe mental illness does not have to mean dying young,” concluded Walker.

The Fourth Annual Lake Nona Impact Forum is set to begin tonight as more than 250 thought leaders converge on Lake Nona to discuss the future of health and wellness. The in-depth talks and discussions during the three-day symposium target key issues and actionable solutions in wellness, sustainable living and health technology.

Wednesday evening’s program features a conversation on health technology and outcomes between CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Sandi Peterson, Group Worldwide Chairman of Johnson & Johnson. The two will discuss “The Missing Link: A New Human-Centered Approach to Transforming Health and Wellbeing.”

Other health and wellness experts speaking Wednesday include Eric Topol of Scripps Health and Dan Buettner, author of “The Blue Zones Solution: Eating and Living Like the World’s Healthiest People.”

These discussions serve to frame the week’s topics that seek to explore and shape the health and wellness landscape. Central themes to be discussed include developing healthy communities, preventative care, mental health, advances in digital health technology, and the challenges and promises of advancing health care.

The 2016 Lake Nona Impact Forum is presented by Johnson & Johnson, along with Founding Sponsors: Cisco, Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation, GuideWell, Sharecare, Tavistock Foundation; Medical City Partners: Nemours Children’s Health System, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, University of Central Florida College of Medicine, UF Health; and Contributing Sponsors: Dr. Phillips Charities, Insurance Office of America, Integrated Wellness Partners, Orlando Health, PepsiCo, Roche, Technogym, and the United States Tennis Association.

For more information about this year’s Lake Nona Impact Forum, visit www.LakeNonaImpactForum.org