Reflecting on 2023 and Charting the Course for 2024

Image: Elly Jurelly

Well, 2023 will be known for many things, not all of them positive. But one of the most positive and encouraging developments is a global wave of interest and activity in healthy longevity. I’ve been involved in conversations and conferences in places as different as New York and Sardinia, London and Vilnius, Nice and Copenhagen. Literally hundreds of businesses and clinics are being set up around the world. All of us involved are probably asking the same question: ‘Is this just a passing fashion, or a lasting seismic shift in the world of healthcare?’ I believe the latter, for a few reasons.

First, because healthy longevity has moved from the fringes to the scientific mainstream. Serious scientific figures and universities are setting up research efforts. Second, the unsustainability of conventional ‘sick care’ systems becomes clearer every year that passes. Third, because machine intelligence – the other big wave of 2023 – has so much to offer in analysing and personalising what works. Fourth, several high-profile individuals have gone public with their own efforts and outcomes in healthspan programmes.

So we have a movement, not just a niche area of science, on our hands. Leaders of this movement now bear quite a responsibility, which takes a number of forms. It will be vital not to overpromise and underdeliver. Because of the plethora of technologies and products, we need frameworks to explain them to both enthusiasts and sceptics - and mechanisms to develop and share best practice. In that context the launch and growth of the Healthy Longevity Medicine Society is a great step forward.

We also need to broaden the focus, as I like to say, from the billionaires to the billions – the billions of people across the world. High net worth figures can be trailblazers but, as elsewhere in healthcare, we need constantly to ask which insights and approaches can make a difference to the healthspan of ordinary folk.

So, looking ahead, what do I see - or hope for - in 2024? As so many health longevity clinics open up around the world, we will develop mechanisms to share insights and best practices. The recent Buck Institute ‘convention of clinics’ is a great start. But we will need a data and analytics infrastructure to support it. We will also need to develop some disciplines in explaining what is on offer, distinguishing the different types of clinics and products and who they are most applicable to. We are beginning to see promising pharmaceutical products targeting the mechanism of aging, and so will want to work with regulators to enable these to move much faster than before from the treatment of very specialised diseases to broader use in preventing the chronic diseases brought on by aging itself.

As I wrote about in my book ‘Lost in Translation’, the path from discovery to widespread application has many roadblocks and potholes in its way. 2024 should see a shift in focus in the various healthy longevity science meetings from fascinating scientific insights on the nature of aging, the different biomarkers that can assess its speed and potential intervention points in the process, to how best to translate these into usable, accessible and affordable products and services. I’m looking forward to playing a part in this. If you’d like to collaborate in that vital effort, please get in touch through the contact form.