Ageing has come of age. The all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for longevity launched yesterday in the Houses of Parliament with not one but two members of parliament in attendance.
As noted by both Damian Green, MP and Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, ageing societies and longevity are defining features of many economies, including the UK. What is often positioned as challenges – increasing dependency ratios, skyrocketing costs of care, falling productivity rates – was noted to be the opportunity of the 21st century. With societal shifts come new spaces for businesses to meet changing needs and respond to changing customer profiles.
The APPG on Longevity has as its core purpose to highlight those opportunities and support, where necessary, through accommodating policy framework and initiatives. Bringing together key stakeholders across the private and public sectors through the APPG is an important step in that process.
Tina Woods, Founder and CEO Collider Health and Collider Science and a member of the FinTECH4Life Steering Committee noted the role of technology during her remarks at the launch. From supporting and, in fact, helping to extend, healthy life spans, AI can drive better health outcomes, decreasing some of the feared costs of an older nation.
Leveraging technologies -voice, AR/VR, AI/Machine learning and even open banking (as seen through some of our presenting companies at the upcoming FinTECH4Life conference) can create a whole new range of products and services to serve the evolving needs of an ageing economy and, in the process, provide an opportunity for innovators across the UK to take the lead and become an important hub for AgeTech.
One of the goals of the APPG is to drive five more years of living in good health. The reality is that good health and longer lives may be here but they are not evenly distributed. As noted at the launch, that ‘wellness gap’ is a key area of focus for the APPG. Policy will play an important role in bridging that gap and ensuring that the benefits of healthier, longer lives benefit all citizens.
At the upcoming FinTECH4Life, longevity, wellness, changing patterns of retirement, the role of technology and innovation will be key issues to discuss and debate. We firmly believe that opportunity to deliver a better, more informed mix of financial products and services can support longer lives in a positive way. If the 100 Year life is what awaits, it provides ‘the possibility of rethinking how our entire life course might unfold”, as noted by Professor (and author) Andrew Scott.
Join us now at the FinTECH4Life conference on the 15 May.