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In the modern world, “Sapere Aude” means having the skill to distinguish truth amid today’s bombardment of information. It means being able to make our own conscious decisions — especially in health, economics, and technology — based on data and reason rather than on authority.
I am using the term “health management” here in two senses: management in terms of professional health executives’ performance, and management of our own individual health as ourselves. I want to explore the concept of sapere aude for both meanings of management.
In one of his letters, the Roman poet Horace writes:
“Begin to be wise; dare to know.”
The message here is that a person must think with their own mind, free themselves from dogma, and be courageous in reaching for knowledge. People often postpone thinking and delay decision-making. But wisdom begins with the courage to act.
Years later, the philosopher Immanuel Kant, who truly made this philosophy his own, turned this phrase into the slogan of the Enlightenment in his famous 1784 essay. According to Kant, most people are in a state of “laziness in using their own reason.” They believe authorities blindly, but he argues that true freedom comes through the courage to use one’s own reason.
In the modern world, “Sapere Aude” means having the skill to distinguish truth amid today’s bombardment of information — being able to make our own conscious decisions, especially in health, economics, and technology, based on data and reason rather than on authority.
I believe that the call of Sapere Aude, “dare to know,” voiced centuries ago, is more critical today than ever. Because the issue now is no longer accessing information — it is cultivating leaders who can question accurate information and decide with their own minds.
Health management, both institutional and individual, sits precisely at this turning point.
I’d like to start by addressing institutional health management. For many years, the health sector was built on systems “accepted as correct” — protocols, guidelines, standards. But today there’s a critical question we must ask: are we truly doing what is right, or merely repeating what we’re used to? It’s time for us to step out of our comfort zone.
Systems built on rote memorization are giving way to a culture of data, foresight, and courageous decision-making. But are we perhaps going too far and entrusting ourselves entirely to AI-driven data? The health leadership of the new era is born not from those who know, but from those who question. The only way to achieve innovation, change, and differentiation, and to overcome existing economic pressures and resource shortages, is to question, to perceive what we could do differently, and to break with rote habit.
Health management, as a profession, is relatively young, especially in developing countries. It demands skills that go far beyond traditional business management. All the developments in medicine, informatics, and digitalization need to be woven into and processed across every dimension of health management. Whether you are in the pharmaceutical industry, hospital management, medical device manufacturing or sales, or in patient support services, every field involves processing boundless data to ensure that health delivery, pharmaceuticals, and medical technology reach the end consumer as products.
I don’t think I need to explain how fast this period is developing! Accordingly, to adapt to these developments, to redirect and transform the resources at our disposal, and to change our operating models, we need “Sapere aude” more than in any period before.
Turning to individual health management, “dare to know” is playing out through the sheer frenzy of personal data we now generate — thanks to everyday devices and software that produce every kind of advanced data about our biology. From genetic tests taken within or outside a longevity context, to the predictions read about our future health status, once we know all this information, how will we organize our lifestyle and our medical follow-up so our health damage stays low, so neither we suffer nor our health insurers end up paying excessively? This data, therefore, concerns not just us, but our health insurers in full measure as well. Until very recently, the paternalistic relationship between physician and patient has given way to a new structure in which the patient questions the physician and the institution about medical outcomes and treatment options, and takes responsibility for their own treatment journey. This behavioral pattern is shaping the future of individual health management.
Today’s health systems are, to a large extent, disease-focused, reactive, dependent on diagnostic and treatment protocols, and organized around a volume-based revenue model of service delivery.
Although this approach worked for many years, it is no longer sustainable. Because health is no longer just treatment — it is a life process that must be continuously managed.
This is exactly where Sapere Aude comes into play — the courage to question the system is what’s needed.
The new health economy advances through systems that produce health rather than disease. Today, the global health economy largely grows through “disease.”
More patients, more procedures, more revenue… But the winners of the future will be those who break this model. The new health model now includes preventive health, and quality-of-life-focused services built around the concepts of Longevity and Aging Well.
This transformation is not merely a fashion — it is also an economic necessity. True innovation in health management means generating revenue from health, not from disease.
The standard protocols used in healthcare are no longer sufficient. Because no patient is “standard.”
The next generation of health management includes AI-supported clinical decision systems, personalized treatment plans, and continuous data tracking generated by the many devices we use.
This approach strengthens not only treatment success, but also the patient’s experience of, and trust in, the institution and the system.
At this point, I’d like to share a concern of mine. Both in tracking our individual health data and in the strategies we use for our institutional roadmap, will we entrust ourselves entirely to AI-generated data? Shouldn’t we also be adding medicine’s centuries of experience and insight into our daily practice, and shaping our interpretations accordingly? I’m all for AI tools that we can use without losing our own capacity for reasoning, but blindly deferring to them and entrusting ourselves to them still concerns me. As we chase after information, therefore, we must also show the courage to separate out, from the data presented to us, the parts that actually serve us.
The health system of the future no longer exists within four walls. With health at home and at work, wearable technologies, digital health platforms, and remote monitoring systems, we are on a life journey in which we have no privacy left, where even our genetic codes are being tracked, and where we know our future health risks. Even the concept of the check-up is being transformed — instead of an annual review, we are shifting toward a lifelong health management system. At the core of this transformation is taking the hospital out of the center and placing the human being at the center instead.
True transformation in healthcare begins not with knowledge, but with courage.
We are right in the middle of this transformation, and it all began with sapere aude.
