Hong Kong has been coined as “one of the healthiest places in the world”, due to its professional and well-developed healthcare services. With free healthcare in the public sector, the average life expectancy reaches up to 85.9 for women and 80 years for men. Earlier in the year, Metta hosted its signature What’sNext? Series focusing on HealthTech, and specifically looking at the future of Ageing. Speakers of the panel shared their insights regarding the healthcare scene in Hong Kong, and the connection between ageing and wellness. By 2036, Hong Kong’s over 65 population is expected to make-up around 30% of the population.
According to Dr Ronald Li, “the ageing population is not only unique within Hong Kong; it is particularly serious in developed countries around the world. With better healthcare and increasing resources, people have the ability to live longer”.
Priyanka Gothi, CEO of Wiser At Work also agrees that ageing is not a Hong Kong-centric problem. She believes the world will be expecting a significant and rapid influx of the ageing population within the oncoming decade: “today there are more people over the age of 60, than children under the age of 5”. This stems from an increasing number of medical advancements and equipment, enabling the prolonging of life and living up to the concept of immortality. With people retiring at age 60 and living until 90, society will also need to brainstorm a roadmap to ensure technology will enable an active and agile lifestyle for the elderly.
Not only does this create an economic burden, but there is an overwhelming concern with the risks in health that the ageing population holds. A lot of money is required to facilitate the livelihood of individuals, especially for individuals who are less mobile and more susceptible to heart diseases, dementia, and other medical ageing concerns.
Novoheart: Bioartificial Heart in a Jar.
Although this is a concern, we should still be hopeful with the development of technology. With an increase in knowledge through research, scientists are able to invent new ways to counter existing health issues. Dr Ronald Li, CEO of a stem-cells biotechnology company uses research and technology to revolutionize the drug discovery and development of heart therapeutics. They bioengineer the construct of human hearts to enable future possibilities in cell regenerative heart therapy and transplantable grafts; which in turn, can combat the occurrence of mutated genes within patients.
Ivan Li, Head of Strategy and Customer Success of Prenetics, also addresses that with current technology, they are able to easily detect and pinpoint health issues in genetic coding. Prenetics uses genetic testing to empower individuals with valuable information on how their genes are affected through diet, drug response, and diseases. With this groundbreaking technology, we reimagine the world of healthcare; enabling a more accurate and efficient way to predict possible cancer-risk within individuals. With this information, the patient will be fully in control of their own future; adjusting their lifestyle and receiving the needed treatment far more effectively. Healthcare officials state that the idea of healthcare is not to just treat the symptoms of the patient but to tackle issues at an earlier stage and lowering the chances of readmission.
With more time focused on research, the future landscape of Hong Kong’s healthcare looks brighter by the day.
- Life Written in Script - 