Industrial societies saw an exponential increase in both technological innovation and human lifespan. “High-tech medicine” became the dominant mindset in industrial countries, assuming that technological innovation is the primary pathway to further improvements in human well-being.
In an era of polycrisis, characterised by anthropogenic climate change, biodiversity loss, tensions over energy and resource supply, growing inequalities and geopolitical tensions, we contend that perpetual, unrestricted technological development in healthcare is a fallacy.
High-tech medicine presents an increasing number of problematic trade-offs between care of patients, harm to the environment and public health, as well as costs and accessibility, that is rarely made explicit in the medical literature.
As an alternative, we propose “low-tech medicine”, designed to maximize care and reduce harm. We define low-tech medicine as a mindset in medical research and practice that relies on three core criteria: relevance, sustainability, and accessibility.
The LowTekMed group aims to provide a pragmatic reflection on these issues and offer practical solutions for maintaining care in an increasingly fluctuating world.
Our main areas of focus are as follows:
– developing evidence-based ideas grounded in the scientific literature, and disseminating them;
– raising awareness among the general public and healthcare professionals about the unsustainability of the current model, through conferences and webinars;
– designing practical, actionable solutions by participating in the organisation of hackathons in collaboration with universities and engineering schools.