| Sumario: | Purpose Public health is concerned with supportive environments for healthy living and as such is directly coupled to prevention. Given the gradual demographic development and fast technology innovation of our era, can we understand present dilemmas on the basis of past successes and provide guidance toward the future? Method The goal of this research is to analyze the existing success and failure of prevention in the main domains of life by technologic means and, in the present demographic shifts, look for future success and failure. The changing definition of 'health' is considered as well. Results & Discussion The main domains of life can be described as1,2: (1) Health and Self-Esteem (2) Housing and Daily Living (3) Mobility and Transport (4) Communication and Governance (5) Work and Leisure. Landmarks of successful prevention in the public sphere are the provision of clean drinking water and the presence of sewerage. Landmarks of failing public prevention are war and poverty. At present, an unpolluted environment (including low fine dust concentration and limitation of greenhouse gasses) and the protection of privacy are among the benefits to be wrested from prevailing narrow economic and quasi-economic interests. For older people, earlier preventive measures could have provided easy access to digital services as a basic public interest. Technology offers the means for empowerment of the elderly to actively adapt to changes in their life situation. These are just examples from a wide framework3 (Figure 1). Scientific research has been and remains the powerful motor for identifying both opportunities and distractions and for providing guidance in the complexities of the public domain that is caught between so many conflicting interests4.
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