Medical sector needs to embrace wellness, roundtable event concludes

Greater acceptance by the medical sector, more and better funded wellness studies and wellness-focused public health campaigns are needed to maximise on the potential of wellness, according to a recent roundtable discussion. 

Held in New York last week, The Science of Wellness – Hype or Hope roundtable event was hosted by the Global Wellness Summit and Scientific American magazine.

Attendees highlighted the need for large-scale public health campaigns around issues such as obesity and the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle. 

Participants also emphasised the need for medical practitioners to embrace prevention and for the medical sector as a whole, including insurers, to be more willing to prescribe wellness solutions. 
 
Other elements underlined as necessary to change in order for wellness to have an even greater impact was for the media to be more responsible in its reporting of wellness and more thorough in verifying the claims made in its name. 

Roundtable participants also advised that governments that focus on prevention will see a difference when it comes to the health of its populations. 

Attendees included Neil Jacobs, chief executive of Six Senses Hotels, Resorts, Spas, Alfredo Carvajal, president Delos International/signature programmes, Mary Tabacchi, associate professor at the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, Josef Woodman, chief executive of Patients Beyond Borders and Ophelia Yeung, senior consultant at SRI International. 

The roundtable discussion was moderated by Susie Ellis, president and chief executive of the Global Wellness Summit and Jeremy Abbate, vice president of Global Media Alliances, Scientific American and publishing director, Scientific American Worldview.