Day One Morning: Monday, 4 April 2005

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Executive Summary
GMF I Program
GMF II Program
GMF III Program
GMF IV Program
GMF V Program

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Day Two, Afternoon
Day Three, Morning
Day Three, Afternoon
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Opening Plenary Session: An introduction to the main issues of the conference

Behind the miraculous science of medicine still lurk today many oldfashioned philosophical and political conundrums; while practitioners of healthcare and politicians wrestle with the day-to-day struggles of delivery and policy, medical ethicists and even some social scientists pontificate from on high, most often with almost no experience at the frontline of life-saving medical choices and policy decisions. As with the vanity of the generals of the early days of the First World War, the demagoguery is to be expected as a part of a stagnant debate; but let us not now also believe it to be the real and underlying language of the healthcare debate.

During this Opening Plenary Session let us turn the page and try to understand where healthcare stands today and, at the same time, begin to map a pathway into the New Frontiers. The Opening Plenary Session of GMF IV will explore some of the most important topics that will impact the way patients are treated in the years ahead, in both the developed and developing worlds.

The lectures will address a subject which, from a physical point of view, is no longer imponderable: namely, «The future of healthcare.» This then will audaciously be set against the backdrop of the societal issues in which «Future Man» will exist and function: «Grand challenges in global healthcare.» The penultimate keynote address will bring a synthesis to these two topics by proposing an «Acceptable healthcare policy» for compassionate and thinking men everywhere. Finally, we will take our first case study example, China, to see how the largest country on earth is approaching its next phase of healthcare development.