The last several decades have yielded significant increases in life expectancy, decreases in late life mortality and enhancements of duration of active life expectancy.  Age specific disability rates for both basic activities of daily life (feeding, dressing, grooming, etc.) as well as instrumental activities (shopping, paying bills, etc.) have been steadily declining since the early 1980s.  With these changes the focus with respect to late life is changing from considerations of lifespan to considerations of healthspan.  This compression of morbidity has important implications for basic biological research, clinical and technological advances, as well as health systems policy.

This page contains presentations from "The Future of Human Healthspan: Demography, Evolution, Medicine and Bioengineering" Conference. All presentations require the latest Flash Player. Click here to download. If you have any questions, please contact Hamid Najib at hnajib@nas.edu.

Task Groups
Task group summaries are now available online.

$1 Million in Grants Awarded
The National Academies have announced the recipients of its 2007 Futures grants for 15 projects ranging from engineering solutions to extend human healthspan to developing socially assistive robotics for physical and cognitive health. The grant recipients participated in the conference "The Future of Human Healthspan: Demography, Evolution, Medicine, and Bioengineering," held last November.

Conference Photos
Please enjoy some photos taken by Paul Kennedy from the conference by clicking here.

*Note: Photos may not be used for commercial purposes. Please email keckfutures@nas.edu to inquire about reprint permissions.