Writing the Future is a major prize for science-fiction short stories about health and health care in 2100.
Babies born today are likely to be alive to welcome in the next century. The care they receive and health they enjoy will be radically different, but how?
Some 83 years ago child mortality was high, hunger was rife, and the NHS non-existent. Yet within 40 years, babies were being born with the help of test tubes, and 40 years later, the human genome had been mapped, and more people were eating too much than too little.
In a world where five years counts as long-term, we need to think differently. Thinking about the real long-term in health is exceptionally limited - this means governments and the NHS are flying blind as to where we're headed.
Writing the Future fills this niche, bringing new ideas and creative thinking.
Of course, this isn't the first time science fiction will have been used to address health issues...
Babies born today are likely to be alive to welcome in the next century. The care they receive and health they enjoy will be radically different, but how?
Some 83 years ago child mortality was high, hunger was rife, and the NHS non-existent. Yet within 40 years, babies were being born with the help of test tubes, and 40 years later, the human genome had been mapped, and more people were eating too much than too little.
In a world where five years counts as long-term, we need to think differently. Thinking about the real long-term in health is exceptionally limited - this means governments and the NHS are flying blind as to where we're headed.
Writing the Future fills this niche, bringing new ideas and creative thinking.
Of course, this isn't the first time science fiction will have been used to address health issues...
MARY SHELLEY 1818
A story of reanimation, organ transplantation, genetic engineering, and medical ethics.
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ALDOUS HUXLEY 1931
The citizens of London kept sane by mood-altering medicine. Anti-depressants didn’t become the subject of experimentation until the 1950s.
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KAZUO ISHIGURO 2005
Exploring the impact on health and society of radically extended life spans, human cloning and organ transplants
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Writing the Future is supported by The Commonwealth Fund and the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London.
