- The gist of this article
In February 2018, Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis of the European Commission made a speech on the subject of healthy ageing at the sixth Conference of Partners on Active and Healthy Ageing. Yes, the sixth! And still they ask why Brexit happened…
He pointed out that by 2025, more than one in five Europeans will be 65 years old or older, with a rapid increase in the number of people over 80. He also stressed that at least 50 million Europeans are living with two or more chronic diseases – a number expected to increase. All this in spite of all the European Conferences on Active and Healthy Ageing and the numerous Directives and Regulations steadily flowing from the Brussels bureaucracy.
The EUtopia to come
But don’t worry! According to Commissioner Andriukaitis digital technologies are transforming our societies and have the potential to transform our public health and healthcare systems too.
Thus an eHealth Action Plan 2012-2020 will empower citizens and healthcare professionals to link devices and technologies and invest in the medicine of the future; providing smarter, safer and patient-centred healthcare.
In the EUtopia to come, engaged citizens will use digital tools and services to look after their own health. The result will be integrated person-centred care models that use telehealth and mHealth for better diagnosis and follow up, better management of complex diseases, and better efficiency of care.
A Steering Group. Yippee!
Further, you will be pleased to know that a Steering Group on Health Promotion and Prevention and Management of Non-Communicable Diseases will help Member States to achieve international health targets. And, as we all know, the EU always hits its targets…
And it gets better! Because within this process, members of this Innovation Partnership will work in multi-stakeholder action groups (are you still with us?) to develop comprehensive and holistic strategies for something or other, and there will be an online portal for consulting and sharing best practices (you lucky, lucky citizens!)
Brussels we have a problem
However, even the Commissioner was forced to concede that the implementation and uptake of digital health solutions has been slow. And he regretted that major differences exist among Member States in terms of deployment and awareness of such solutions.
His solution is a mid-term review of the Digital Single Market Strategy that offers an exceptional opportunity to link policies blah blah…by which time, of course, “we are all dead”, to quote Maynard Keynes.
Masquelier’s OPCs: The solution for the here and now
The good news doesn’t come from Brussels. If we want to age more healthily, stay active and maintain vibrant health, there is already a perfect solution out there in the form of Jack Masquelier’s OPCs. Moreover, Masquelier's OPCs give consumers (ageing or otherwise) a complete package in terms of scientific evidence, a long and unsurpassed history of safe use, consumer trust, traceability, and a large amount of experiential knowledge gained through day to day practice and use by thousands of clinicians, dieticians, and doctors.
And, of course, there is the fact that Masquelier’s OPCs have millions of satisfied consumers. Not a holistic steering group or people-centred committee in sight. No multi-stakeholder partnerships, no disagreements, and no delays. Indeed, Dr Jack Masquelier's work and OPCs are the perfect gift for the European Commissioner. He can read all about it in OPCs, Dr. Jack Masquelier’s Mark on Health.
In conclusion, as Commissioner Andriukaitis didn’t quite say, “I am confident that OPCs today and tomorrow will help advance our common goal: healthy and active living for healthy and active ageing.”
