"Why we need a fourth revolution in healthcare" with Dr William Bird

Past Event

Date
 02 December 2019, 5:00pm - 6:15pm

Location
 Lecture Theatre, Oxford Martin School
34 Broad Street (corner of Holywell and Catte Streets), Oxford, OX1 3BD

Event Recording:

We are entering the fourth revolution of healthcare.

The first revolution was Public Health with sanitation, cleaner air and better housing. The second is medical healthcare with the advancement of diagnostics and treatment with a focus on disease cure. The third is personalised health, through individual knowledge, technology, behaviour change and precision medicine.

However, these revolutions have left three major problems unresolved; unsustainable healthcare, rising health inequalities and climate change driven by unsustainable living.

So, we enter the fourth revolution in healthcare which builds on the previous three. This is based on communities rather than individuals, supporting a sustainable active lifestyle, eating local produce and using culture, art and contact with nature to create purpose and connections to each other, leading to greater resilience and wellbeing. It is a revolution when Smart Cities become central to the delivery of health and when advanced technology becomes almost invisible encouraging a lifestyle closer rather than further from nature.

In this talk Dr Bird will explain how we are already delivering this future and how biological changes such as chronic inflammation, epigenetics, mitochondrial dysfunction and telomere shortening can provide the scientific link between wellbeing and disease.

William Bird

Dr William Bird
CEO, Intelligent Health

Dr William Bird MBE is a GP passionate about getting people active. He started by setting up the first Health Walk scheme in April 1996 and then developed the Green Gym the following year. He quickly found that companionship and contact with nature were major driving forces in keeping people active.

William is an advisor to WHO, Public Health England and Sport England and has been CEO of Intelligent Health for 8 years. Intelligent Health’s mission is to build active communities. He is responsible for creating Beat the Street a physical activity intervention which has had 950,000 participants to date with evidence of sustained behaviour change.