The NHS faces growing pressure from an increasing disease burden including mental health disorders, and chronic conditions like heart disease and cancer. Tackling this complex landscape demands a paradigm shift in our approach to health strategy. It requires a new prevention ecosystem, focused on interventions that extend healthy life span and prevent prolonged periods of illness before they occur.

This new prevention ecosystem would deliver benefits in terms of increased healthy life expectancy, reduced health inequalities, delayed citizen entry into the healthcare system, and a more resilient, prosperous, and productive workforce.

The ecosystem relies on three principles:

• Increased focus and investment in preventative interventions, with a shift towards earlier life stages. This involves leveraging advanced screening, digital technology, enhanced health education, and where needed, support from multi-disciplinary primary care teams.
• Establishing a cross-sector, collaborative ecosystem beyond the NHS, involving citizens, retail health providers, non-profits, educators, private sector innovators, employers and workforce, and wider government.
• Unlocking critical enablers with significant investment in data and technology infrastructure and digital skills, by aligning financial and other incentives, and by addressing citizen trust in data sharing and technology.

Our vision for a new ecosystem of health promotion and protection is ambitious. It focuses on achieving longer, healthier lifespans, not simply on avoiding disease altogether. Realising this vision will require a bold paradigm shift. Read the report to learn more.

In partnership with Google and The Royal Society