By Editor Design.nl / 13-05-2010

Still in early stages, the latest Philips Design Probe, Self Health, takes a provocative and unconventional look at areas that could have a profound effect on the way we understand and monitor our own health and make lifestyle choices 15-20 years from now. 

Lifestyle Diseases
Lifestyle diseases like stress and depression are increasingly becoming the main causes of illness in the Western world. Our fast-paced lives, carried out in a digital world as far removed from daily human contact as people have ever been, are to blame.

It is estimated that by 2050 one in every two people will suffer from diabetes. Childhood obesity levels which have been soaring in the West are now becoming a global issue. Over the coming decades, Alzheimer’s, depression and heart disease will affect billions of people. Many of these diseases have their root in our modern lifestyle and cannot be solved by Western medicine’s curative, clinical and pharmacological approach. The Self Health Probe looks at different approaches to the medical issues facing us today from curative to preventive health, from pharmacological to naturopathic diet based solutions and from clinical to home care.

Reconnecting with the body
The Self Health Probe team tracked and interpreted issues such as; the shift in emphasis from curative to preventative medicine, the role of the mind-body connection in health, differences in cultural perception of health, modern lifestyle diseases, possibilities and issues of self-diagnosis and trust mechanisms. This research uncovered questions about our relationship with our bodies and how people might be challenged to take more responsibility and interest in their health to prevent future illness.

Using the concept of the 'Tree of Life' a 3D representation aims to give an indication of how lifestyle choices affect one's health over a lifetime.

The project then focused further exploration on a number of themes within the area of Self Health:
Body Dysmorphia looks at the rise in anorexia, boulemia, morbid obesity, addiction to plastic surgery and other conditions that are exacerbated by the increasing media representation of iconic beauty that is unattainable for most people.
Body Talk looks at ways to remind people of how lifestyle choices affect overall health over a lifetime.
Touch Hunger examines our growing physical isolation from each other and systematically limits physical contact, the therapeutic effects of which are very significant.

The concepts and ideas generated in these theme areas are being used as a basis for interviews to gain deeper insights into people’s preferable futures. And the Self Health Probe explorations will feed into upcoming design-led innovation projects.

The Philips Design Probes research program which explores future lifestyle concepts to stimulate debate, has fast accumulated a stack of international design awards since its initiation.

Stay tuned for more…

Image: © Philips Design

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