LIFE Workshops
LIFE has hosted and will continue to host international workshops on key topics such as functioning and healthy longevity, rehabilitation and public health, and the integration of health and social systems.
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), heralded by The New York Times as the most esteemed and authoritative adviser on issues of health and medicine in the United States, together with the University of Lucerne, hosted an international workshop on Aging, Functioning, and Rehabilitation.
This special event focused on the World Health Organization’s concept of functioning and its vital role in redefining health, with an emphasis on healthy aging and the future of rehabilitation as a key health strategy.
Participants engaged with world-renowned experts to explore:
- Functioning and the realization of healthy longevity through rehabilitation.
- Functioning and the investment case for the role of rehabilitation in healthy longevity
- The foundation for improving rehabilitation service delivery and care across the life course.
- Functioning as the key to a comprehensive 360-defree life-course foundation for healthy longevity research.
- Advocating for health and social policy in support of healthy longevity.
Set within the University of Lucerne's LIFE initiative, this workshop represented a crucial step in shaping a concrete public health agenda, underlining the growing importance of rehabilitation in the 21st century.
Program: Aging, Functioning, and Rehabilitation A Workshop | National Academies
Highlights: Agining, Functioning, and Rehabilitation (Highlights)
Proceedings of the Workshop: Aging, Functioning, and Rehabilitation (Proceedings)
In October 2024, the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine hosted expert meeting bringing together leading researchers and practitioners in rehabilitation, mental health, functioning and the ICF, ageing, outcome measurement, epidemiology, biostatistics, data science, and artificial intelligence.
The meeting focused on the challenges and lessons learned from efforts to implement standardized reporting of functioning information in rehabilitation, particularly in the context of healthy longevity.
The discussions and insights from this event are reflected in a commentary published in (National Academy of Medicine) NAM Perspectives, which highlights the importance of standardized reporting of functioning for strengthening the impact of rehabilitation on healthy longevity.
Publication: Bickenbach et al. 2025_Standardized-Assessment-and-Reporting_NAM Perspectives paper
