Announcing the WSIS 2023 World Summit on the Information Society Forum: ICTs and Older Persons Track

May 8-12, 2023 / Geneva, Switzerland

The Global Coalition on Aging is excited to again be leading the special track on ICTs and Older Persons at the 2023 WSIS Forum in partnership with ITU.

Join us for this series of thought-provoking panels exploring how digital technology is transforming the future of aging and to learn more about how individuals and organizations can help lead this process by registering here.

The ICTs and Older Persons track will feature a new panel each day from May 8-12 at 8:00-9:00 AM EDT/14:00-15:00 CEST:

Monday, May 8 | How Tech is Defining Medical Innovation and Integrated Care

Michael Devoy, Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and Pharmacovigilance, Bayer

Mario Barbagallo, President, International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics, European Region (IAGG-ER)

Jian Yang, Vice President, Digital Health GMAO, Eli Lilly & Co

Eric Sutherland, Senior Health Economist, OECD

Alexandra Bhatti, Director, US Vaccine Public Policy, Merck

 

Tuesday, May 9 | Smart Homes Matter

Emily Allen, Director of Thought Leadership and Advocacy, Honor Home Instead

Kazumi Nishikawa, Director, Information Technology Division, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan

Keren Etkin, Gerontologist & Founder, TheGerontechnologist.co

Philip Hogan, Chief Executive and Founder, Origin Care

Nick Wilson, Business Integration Leader, Ambulatory Monitoring and Diagnostics, Philips

 

Wednesday, May 10 | The Age Tech Revolution – the Investment Opportunity

Abby Miller Levy, Managing Partner & Co-Founder, Primetime Partners

Kevin Crain, Head of Workplace Solutions Integration, Bank of America

Danielle Duplin, Founder, Executive Producer of Innovation Programs, AGENCY

Anthony Lambrou, Corporate Strategy and Digital Innovation Lead, Pfizer

 

Thursday, May 11 | Equity and Technology Across the Life Course – Readjusting Ageist Attitudes

Malik Afegbua, Visual Artist, Fashion Show for Elders

Meri Frischman, Founder, Pro-Age Woman

Charles Haddad, AVP, Global Digital Health, Eli Lilly & Company

Amal Abou Rafeh, Chief of Programming on Ageing Section, United Nations Office of Economics and Social Affairs

 

Friday, May 12 | Creating the New Urban Infrastructure that Supports Healthy Aging

Thiago Hérick de Sá, Senior Technical Officer, World Health Organization

Joseph Musgrave, CEO, Home and Community Care Ireland

Frans-Anton Vermast, Strategy Advisor & International Smart City Ambassador, Amsterdam

Brian Kennedy, Arts Consultant

Lois Privor-Dumm, Senior Advisor, Policy Advocacy & Communications and Director of Adult Immunization at the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC), Johns Hopkins University

 
Register now! Upon completing the registration process, you will receive a confirmation email with a link to download calendar invites for each of your selected sessions. Sessions will also be streamed live from the WSIS Forum Facebook page.
Click here for the latest agenda announcements for the 2023 WSIS Forum. Please contact [email protected] with any questions.

 

Latest Developments

We keep our members and partners in touch with the most recent updates and opinions in the worldwide dialogue on population longevity and related issues.

Global Coalition on Aging Workshop Calls on G7 Countries to Fund Pull Incentives to Spur Antibiotic Innovation

The Global Coalition on Aging, in partnership with JPMA, today announced the release of its workshop report on the AMR crisis facing G7 countries and the world, “The Value of Pull Incentives in Japan to Encourage Investment in Antibiotic Innovation to Solve the AMR Crisis.” If strong action is not taken to address AMR, we will lose the antibiotics we need to cure infections, which is likely to outpace cancer as a major cause of death, killing an estimated 10 million by 2050.

Our National Conversation on Aging

Now that President Biden officially declared his run for a second term, what are we to make of the countless warnings about his age? Clearly, voters have already considered age a major factor – Google Search results for ‘Biden age’ hit an all-time-high just before the 2020 election – and speculation has only heightened four years on. Unfortunately, these concerns are misguided and even dangerous because they conflate age with poor health and confuse ideas about work and retirement.

World Immunization Week: Best-Kept Secret for 21st-Century Healthy Aging

The tremendous success of childhood immunisation campaigns across the 20thcentury is one of the greatest triumphs of public health. Along with advances in sanitation and antibiotics, childhood immunisation has resulted in the miracle of modern longevity: the once extravagant prospect of growing old has become the norm. Now, in our 21st century, isn’t it our great challenge to build on this achievement by realising a healthy longevity?

South China Morning Post Letter to the Editor

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the defining global problems of our time. Drug-resistant bacterial infections killed an estimated 1.27 million people in 2019. By 2050, 10 million lives annually could be lost to antimicrobial resistance, and annual global gross domestic product could fall by between 1.1 per cent and 3.8 per cent. Fortunately, Chinese policymakers, physicians and patients have shown what is possible when they focus collective efforts on antimicrobial resistance.

Medicine Price Setting Might Appeal to Voters but Will Cost Patients

As policymakers search for potential cuts to the national budget, they risk jeopardizing the country’s most cost-effective use of healthcare dollars: biomedical innovation regarding vaccines , prescription drugs, and emerging therapies, including antibodies. As the nation rapidly ages, protecting this pipeline of medicine will not only improve health outcomes but will do so at a lower cost by reducing more expensive hospital and primary care.

Global Coalition on Aging Hosts Cross-Sector Roundtable to Tackle Heart Valve Disease in Aging Societies

The Global Coalition on Aging (GCOA) and the Global Heart Hub have released a global position paper “Heart Valve Disease: Harnessing Innovation to Save Lives, Mitigate Costs, and Advance the Healthy Aging Agenda.” The report builds upon on a December 2022 GCOA-GHH roundtable of cross-sector experts and examines how behavior and policy change can best address heart valve disease in our 21st century.

New York City Twins with Ireland to Develop Age Friendly Communities

The twinning commits both sides to share knowledge on age friendly programs and builds on the 2011 Dublin Declaration of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities. The agreement was signed by the Cathaoirleach (Mayor) Nick Killian of Meath County Council which hosts the Irish Age Friendly Programme and Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, Commissioner for Aging.

Just Getting Started at 75

In the latest charge against the promise of healthy aging, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, oncologist and bioethicist, doubled down on his infamous 2014 essay stating that 75 is the ideal age to die. Now 65, he maintains that after age 75, he will no longer receive medical screenings and interventions like colonoscopies, cancer treatment, flu shots, and heart valve replacement.