Agile health: Social medicine by design

Drawing on international examples and emerging models of care, Boozary, an executive director at University Health Network in Canada, argued that health services must become more agile, responsive and integrated if they are to address the complex challenges facing populations today.

Central to his presentation was the concept of social medicine – the idea that health is shaped not only by medical treatment but also by social and economic circumstances. Boozary suggested that healthcare organisations need to move beyond recognising these factors and instead deliberately design services that respond to them. Framing the challenge, he said the work of social medicine is fundamentally about how societies “battle and contend with the pathologies of poverty”.