So what is health?
You see, and realize that the definition that the World
Health Organization had proposed 60 years before
wasn't helping very much.
I said, health, of course, the WHO definition.
And this is it right there at the beginning
of the Constitution of the WTO.
Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social
well being and not just the absence
of disease or infirmity.
And I found myself at one of these events that
said we're celebrating the 60th anniversary of the WHO.
And I couldn't help it.
There was an open mic and I said, what is health?
And they threw this definition at me.
And I couldn't help it.
They said, raise your hand, as I would like to invite you now,
raise your hand if you have complete physical, mental,
and social well being, complete.
If you are wearing glasses, you are screwed,
if you want to pee, you are screwed.
If you didn't sleep well last night, you're screwed,
if you are worried about something, you're screwed.
You are not healthy.
Raise your hand if you have complete physical, mental,
and social well being.
There you go, Paul.
We need to chat.
I will open your mouth and find cavities there.
I bet to you.
Because as a physician, health for me
is a state of incomplete diagnosis.
OK, so even if you are healthy, most of us here are not.
And this definition of health is still the definition
of health for the world.
Which condemned us, most of us, to be not healthy.
So we have focused on eradicating disease.
Of course, that's what medicine is about.
So three years later, thanks to support
from the government of the Netherlands,
a group got together and collated the responses
we got through the British Medical Journal.
People from all over the world contributed to this effort.
And this is what we proposed in 2011.
We proposed to consider health an ability,
the ability that we have as individuals or communities
to adapt and to manage the inevitable challenges that we
face through life--
physical, mental, or social.
Health as an ability, not as a condition.
So if health is an ability, all of us
might be able to develop it if we don't have it.
And it might be possible to position health
as the main indicator of what we do.
What if our main role, especially
with the use of these digital technologies,
would be to enable people to experience positive health?
What if we applied that to our own families and to ourselves?
Now that we are all healthy, what
if we went home and said to the people
we love, hey, in general, how would you regard your health?
What if that was the first question
we asked people when they come to our consulting rooms?
In general, how would you rate your health, instead
of what is your problem?
That usually leads to things that
cost money-- prescriptions, lab tests, referrals,
or sick leaves.
And that's what we do within our family,
we're ensuring that we are all healthy.