Themes / Health
Health: towards a city without sickness or accidents
Where Geneva’s hospital stands today, Verity finds a HUG-Centre, where people come to refuel on affection. When she asks where the sick are treated, Smaranda answers with a simple principle: supply and demand. As people stay healthy, the demand for treatment shrinks, and the hospital shrinks with it.
The ideas below are the steps on that path. Some have already been achieved elsewhere; one or two are still open research questions.
- No one killed or badly hurt on Geneva’s roads Done somewhere Geneva has one of the highest rates of serious road casualties in Switzerland. Helsinki has shown that zero is reachable. HEA-01
- Very few people want to leave life early Research frontier Suicide is the leading cause of death for people under 50 in Switzerland, and assisted suicides are rising every year. HEA-02
- Far fewer chronic diseases Engineering and scale Chronic diseases cause about 80% of Swiss health costs, and premiums keep rising. In Geneva, one adult in three has high blood pressure. HEA-03
- A HUG-Centre where people refuel on affection Political will Where Geneva’s hospital stands today, a beautiful centre for human warmth. More than half of Geneva’s population feels lonely at least sometimes. HEA-04
- Babies born outside hospitals Done somewhere Most healthy pregnancies do not need a hospital. Midwife-led birth centres are as safe for the baby and lead to far fewer interventions, yet only about 2 in 100 Swiss births take place in one. HEA-05
- Radiant, healthy older people Engineering and scale We live longer, but not always better: at 65, Swiss women can expect another 22 years of life, but only about 15 of them in good health. Community programmes in Japan and Finland show how to add healthy years. HEA-06
- Everyone learns how to stay healthy Done somewhere Nearly half the Swiss population often struggles with health information. In Geneva 2061, everyone learns from childhood how to stay healthy, and health centres teach health rather than treat illness. HEA-07
- Almost no sickness at all Research frontier No city has ever done it. But healthy habits already add up to ten disease-free years, and AI is transforming medical research. How far can prevention, education, environment and medicine take us in 35 years? HEA-08