Innovation-in-Europes-Cities_Bloomberg-Mayors-Challenge1

Five Core ThemesHealth and Well-beingAiding healthy livingCities across Europe are increasingly concernedthat the health and well-being of their residents doesnot live up to what might fairly be expected of oneof the most economically advanced regions of theworld. A number of proposals focused on promotingimprovements in physical and mental health toenable a better quality of life and – at the same time– reduce healthcare costs and increase productivity.Cities like Saint-Étienne, France wantedto stimulate demand for exercise by installinginfrastructure to support more active lifestyles.Sheffield, United Kingdom proposed distributingfree activity-monitoring devices and runningmass events with prizes to encourage walking andsocial cohesion. Lyon, France planned to providepersonalised walking routes via a website, whileLarissa, Greece proposed using NFC (near-field“Improvements in physicaland mental health enable abetter quality of life, reducehealthcare costs and increaseproductivity.”communication) technology to track and developbetter walking routes. Brighton & Hove, UnitedKingdom even suggested a smartphone applicationthat could be used to avoid mental health problemsby encouraging positive behavioural changesin at-risk people. A slightly different approachto improving happiness was Limassol, Cyprus’sMinistry of Laughter, a dedicated department thatwould increase well-being by helping people tolaugh more.Prevailing concerns about obesity, increasinglevels of diabetes and a lack of access to healthyfood is reflected in a series of proposals for growyour-ownschemes and partnerships with localfarms to increase access to affordable and healthyfood. Programmes often featured an educationalcomponent that would increase the uptake ofhealthy menus or improved eating habits. Coimbra,Portugal planned to teach children how to eat wellin social, family-style environments, while Gdynia,Poland wanted to use experimental gardens to helpchildren develop a taste for fresh produce. Otherideas to promote the benefits of a healthy diet wereput forward by San Sebastián, Spain and Leicester,United Kingdom, which suggested ways of tacklingfood security through local growing which – as theplans put forward by Alicante, Spain confirmed –could help grow the local economy.Several cities proposed measures that wouldfocus on the requirements of individuals withspecial needs. This would save lives while alsosaving money by reducing the cost burden onwelfare services. Elche, Spain presented an ideaof training 50% of the population in cardiopulmonaryresuscitation to reduce the risk of dyingfrom cardiac arrest outside hospitals. Bruges,Belgium and Edinburgh, United Kingdom madeplans to use technology and citizen support to maketheir cities dementia-friendly by helping patientsnavigate the city. Helsinki, Finland sought to allowpsychiatric patients to fill in their own ‘transferticket’ when transferring to out-based care. Thiswould give patients more control over an oftendifficult process.Finalist proposalsBristol, United KingdomBristol identified a lack of access to quality foodas a major source of inequality, and is concernedabout the consequences of increasedobesity in poorer areas. The Learn, Grow, EatRevolution proposes encouraging local foodproduction and the establishment of healthyfood shops at existing community project sites,and also new food outlets and pop-up shops indeprived areas. Local growing decreases ‘foodmiles’, reducing carbon emissions and alsoincreasing the number of people who eat foodgrown by themselves or by people they know.This feeds into plans to partner with local chefsand school growing projects to teach residentshow to cook healthier meals. While someelements of the idea are fairly established inother cities, the scale and complexity proposedin Bristol would increase the innovativeness ofthis comprehensive farm-to-fork programme.London, United KingdomHalf of Londoners are clinically obese andthe next generation is showing signs thatthe trend will worsen. This will likely increase therisk of Type-2 diabetes, and place additionalstrain on an already stretched healthcaresystem. London Lives is a home-based careprogramme that proposes using technologyalready available in people’s homes to developa hyper-local understanding of chronic andat-risk patients, including children. This willreduce the cost of treating patients and reducethe likelihood that the technology implementedwill become obsolete. It will also targetprevention and use data collection to improvethe quality of treatment. An open sourceplatform is expected to make it easier to expandthe programme to include other at-risk groupsin future. While many cities have establisheddiabetes prevention programmes that workwith the families of diabetes sufferers, few havestarted to comprehensively integrate thesenew technologies into municipal healthcarestrategies at the scale that London proposes.28