1. society
2. welfare
3. healthcare

Schedule
Schedule
08:30 – 9:00
Registration
10:50 – 11:20
Refreshments
9:00 – 9:30
Opening and Introduction
11:20 – 13:00
Robin Daly
Chairman, Yes to Life
Morning session 2: Re-examining our evidence
base and the barriers to cheap, effective solutions
Dr Vijayendra Murthy
Bach. Ayurvedic Med & Surgery, Master of Surgery (India), B.Nat,
Master of Public Health (New Zealand)
Opening address and introduction to the Think Tank Summit
About the Think Tank. The main drivers of the healthcare crisis.
Introduction to the morning speakers.
Robert Verkerk PhD
How can we better evaluate clinical practice, outcomes and experience?
Executive & scientific director, Alliance for Natural Health International
Evidence-based medicine (EBM) does not always best serve the public or health
professionals. Comparative Effectiveness Research and other collaborative
approaches add a critically important dimension to evidence, particularly as it relates
to determining best clinical practice and evaluating multi-modality interventions.
How can we take into account clinical experience and improve on clinical decisionmaking based on the existing evidence hierarchy system?
Opening and introduction to the Think Tank Summit content
Highlighting consensus, uncertainties and challenges; identifying quick-fixes to
improve primary and secondary care outcomes in the face of an ageing population
and spiraling chronic disease crisis.
Robert Scott Bell
Presenter & broadcaster, Robert Scott Bell Show, NaturalNews Radio, UK Health Radio
Prof Karol Sikora
9:30 – 10:50
Morning Session 1: Chronic disease and healthcare
systems – new directions
Ben van Ommen PhD
Principal Scientist, TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research)
The need for flexibility in clinical practice aimed at optimising outcomes
The guideline-based protocols developed by the National Institute for Health
and Care Excellence (NICE) currently used by NHS doctors relies heavily on
pharmaceutical prescription and surgery and do not sufficiently take into account
key factors such as patient individuality, epigenetics and clinical experience.
Prevention and treatment protocols need to be more flexible, take into account a
whole-body perspective, consider the individual’s epigenetic background and be
geared to effectiveness, as distinct from efficacy, as determined in RCTs.
How systems flexibility changes medicine to personalised healthcare
By applying the concept of systems flexibility to all drivers of health and disease,
personalised approaches to prevention and treatment have emerged. These require
new diagnostics and pave the way for the new paradigm of personalised lifestyle
medicine. Most importantly, they encourage self-empowerment and aim to resolve
underlying causes of disease, so replacing the disease management and symptom
control practices that typify current mainstream healthcare.
Dr Jonathan Wright
Ralph Moss PhD
With specific focus on cancer, validated approaches to delivery of more effective, yet
significantly less costly, primary and secondary care are discussed, along with the
need for a sea change in the training of oncologists and related health professionals,
as well as the associated medico-legal framework.
After 45 years practicing lifestyle medicine…
Michael Ash
Which areas of the science are emerging, which are well established, and which are
yet to be adequately recognised? The central role of the gut microbiome, how selfcare/disease prevention approaches could be encouraged and healthcare education
reformed, with a view to reducing demand and costs of mainstream healthcare.
Facilitator
Robert Scott Bell
Dr Rangan Chatterjee
Think tank discussion session 1
NHS GP and functional medicine practitioner
Conventional vs functional medicine clinical practice models: Perspectives
from a UK general practitioner
Challenges for effective primary healthcare in a mainstream setting; comparing
conventional and functional medicine models of clinical practice; and lessons on
continuing professional development, patient empowerment and self-responsibility.
Adjunct Faculty Member, Institute for Functional Medicine (USA); NL Education (UK)
Listening to the science with deaf ears.
Principal, Cancer Decisions, USA
Insights on cost-effective, patient-centred oncology
Medical Director, Tahoma Clinic, USA
A sea change in healthcare practice is required if non-pharmaceutical and
integrative approaches are to be more widely adopted. Dr Wright draws from
nearly half a century of clinical experience and discusses the potential for dramatic
improvements in outcome using integrative interventions for a diverse range of
common and debilitating diseases.
Medical Director, Cancer Partners UK; Dean of Medicine, University of Buckingham (UK)
Facilitator:
Dr Rangan Chatterjee
Think tank discussion session 2
13:00 – 14:00
Lunch break
Schedule
14:00 – 15:40
Dr Robin Youngson
Afternoon session 1: Patient-centred care,
business and politics – towards effective and
sustainable healthcare
Schedule
16:10 – 17:15
Afternoon Session 2: Discussion & summaries
Facilitator:
Robert Scott Bell Structured think tank discussion 4 (plenary)
Issues for discussion: challenges facing improved adoption of lifestyle medicine; cost
and accessibility; benefits of individualised, whole body, multi-modality, functional
approaches; making epigenetics matter; equalities and inequalities; comparison
between the UK’s NHS and the US healthcare system; priorities for mainstream
health renewal
Director, Hearts in Healthcare, NZ
Compassion and empathy in healthcare
Compassionate care saves time, money and lives. Approaches that could help to
facilitate improved integration of compassionate care into mainstream healthcare
are discussed.
Robert Scott Bell
Smriti Singh
Personal Health Budgets, Regional Lead for London, NHS England
Presenter & broadcaster, Robert Scott Bell Show
Speaker Soundbites: “The biggest shift in your perspective today”
Putting the patient at the centre
Much lip-service has been given to patient-centred healthcare. Smriti Singh shows
how Personalised Health Budgets can encourage autonomy and self-care, increase
personal choice significantly and place the patient at the centre of their own chronic
disease management or prevention programme.
Vivienne Lyfar-Cissé PhD Principal Clinical Biochemist, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust,
Chair – NHS BME Network
Towards a healthcare solution for all
Despite the rhetoric around patient-centred care, which is firmly embedded in the
NHS Constitution, inequality is rampant. Services often inadequately account for
social and economic causes of disease or accounting for the cultural and individual
needs of both patients and healthcare providers. We need to urgently move towards
a more flexible, non-discriminatory healthcare system that extends into communities
and families, is relevant both to patients and frontline health professionals and
caters for all needs, irrespective of social strata, cultural background, ethnicity or
genetic predisposition.
Robert Verkerk PhD
Executive & scientific director, Alliance for Natural Health International
Bottom-up and top-down reform of healthcare
Excessive drug dependency, conflicting healthcare paradigms and information,
medical training biases, a regulatory environment that stifles innovation and
insufficient individualisation are among the factors limiting adoption of personalised
lifestyle medicine approaches. While top-down policy shifts are necessary, sea
changes are required to the medical curriculum, to clinical decision-making and
practice models, and to individual and corporate responsibility in healthcare. Public
engagement in this process is vital.
Facilitator:
Vivienne Lyfar-Cissé PhD Think tank discussion session 3
15:40 – 16:10
Refreshments
Robert Verkerk PhD
Summary and conclusions from the day
Robin Daly
Dr Rangan Chatterjee
Vivienne Lyfar-Cissé PhD
Robert Scott Bell
Robert Verkerk PhD
Robin Daly
Closing remarks
17:15
Close