A word with… Marco Baccanti – Chief Executive of Health Industries South Australia

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What healthcare challenges are being faced by populations around the world?
Lifestyle and changing demography are big challenges to the healthcare system.

By lifestyle, I mean four commonly identified poor lifestyle habits: bad nutrition, lack of physical activity, stress and substance abuse (i.e. alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs). The effect of these habits is the incredible growth of a family of conditions called Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD), so named because they are not caused by pathogens such as viruses and bacteria.

The main lifestyle-driven NCDs are cardiovascular issues (e.g. stroke, heart attack), metabolic diseases (e.g. diabetes), neurologic diseases
(e.g. Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s), and some of the oncologic conditions.

These diseases have another typical characteristic in common: they are chronic. And in most cases they are even multi-chronic, requiring ongoing care that must be typically delivered for many years, if not decades.

At the same ti ...