Our view of a healthy society

Thema:
Healthy society

Improving the physical and mental health of individuals. That’s our ambition. This requires innovation and a new perspective on health and healthcare. Our living environment plays an important role, because healthier living environments prevent almost a quarter of global diseases.

The Dutch government has drawn up a number of missions for the coming years. The goal is that by 2040, all Dutch people will live in good health at least 5 years longer. There should also be a smaller gap between the health of the lowest and highest economic groups. The ambition is to reduce these health differences by 30%.

5 key points for a healthy society

At TNO, we want to make a demonstrable contribution to these missions. Together with government agencies, knowledge institutes, and companies, we develop technological and social innovations that improve health and professional employability. In this way, we contribute to a healthy, vital, and productive population, lower healthcare costs, and increased economic growth. We focus on 5 key points.

1. Effective prevention and behavioural intervention

We make a demonstrable contribution to maintaining health and halving lifestyle and work-related diseases. By preventing or curing these diseases, we can ensure that many people enjoy a better quality of life and we save a lot of money. We therefore contribute to developing innovations that help patients to change their lifestyle, among other things.

2. Personalised digital and analogue health and lifestyle interventions

We believe that personalised prevention, treatment, and support – both digital and analogue – should be the norm. Because everyone is different. Physically, but also in terms of genetic background, mental health, and social context. That's why we develop customised technological solutions and frameworks. For example, personalised pills. We also focus on models to bring data together into personalised and comprehensible recommendations.

3. Faster, better, and cheaper drug development

We want healthcare to remain affordable for everyone and accessible to all. To this end, the production of drugs must be made faster, better, and cheaper. At TNO, we develop technologies and models for this and make them usable by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

4. A healthy, innovative work environment

We contribute to a healthy work environment with safe-by-design solutions, behavioural interventions, and models showing the effects on health. We also work on innovations to predict and control the indoor climate. One example is sensors that let you know if you’re ingesting dangerous substances. In addition, we work towards an inclusive, sustainable, and flexible labour market. This keeps employees healthy and enables them to work longer.

5. Healthy living environment

The environment in which we grow up, live, work, exercise, sleep, and relax affects our health. The combination of exposure to polluted air and noise pollution, for example, has a major impact on us. At TNO, we work with field labs in which we create a healthy living environment through the monitoring of toxic substances and modelling. We do this, for example, by researching the indoor climate (healthy buildings) and through emission measurements and emission distribution models. But also by monitoring air quality from space, assessing exposure, and explaining the effect of exposure.

This is how we work on a healthy society

28 resultaten, getoond 11 t/m 15

Discover hybrid working 2.0: virtual meetings in the metaverse

Informatietype:
Insight
26 January 2023

Positive experiences of remote working are leading us to insights for new innovations. Our latest innovation: work meetings in the metaverse.

Personalised food conveniently delivered to your home

Informatietype:
Insight
23 January 2023

MixMasters develops, manufactures, and packages personalised health food and sports supplements. They try to bring healthy food to their customers in innovative ways and focus mainly on the sports and health industry.

Group Care for pregnant women: A game changer for maternal and child care

Informatietype:
Insight
20 December 2022

Approximately 800 women die every day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Group care breaks the vicious circle of poor quality and inadequate utilization of services by offering care that addresses health holistically. It also focuses on health promotion and information and meets the needs of the end users. TNO and partners co-create strategies, learn implementation lessons and build ecosystems for learning and adaptation to bring group care to scale in seven countries.

TNO innovations addressing mental health of children

Informatietype:
Insight
9 December 2022

BoB, TNO’s methodology for teaching children resilience and stress management in South Sudan has proven successful and effective, and is ready for upscaling.

TNO helps accelerate drug development through insight

Informatietype:
Insight
14 November 2022

To find the most effective interventions for complex metabolic diseases, we must first understand the dynamics of disease onset and progression. Only then can key targets and optimal therapeutic windows for more effective treatment be defined. We spoke with Anita van den Hoek, Research Scientist for TNO Metabolic Health, about how TNO helps pharmaceutical companies accelerate drug development through better understanding of disease pathways.