“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Benjamin Franklin 1736
Prevention by Design: Creating Healthy Lifestyles for Long Livesis the theme for the 13th edition of theStanford Longevity Design Challenge and the open call for presentations began last week September 15th, with the deadline date of December 1st after which the judging panel will select the finalists to be announced by January 21, 2026. Winners of the $10K top award will be announced in April 2026.
Of all the recent Design Challenge themes over the last five years, perhaps this year’s subject area might provide the most diverse, open ended set of options – and dare I say most challenging to address. Student design teams from around the world will have to focus harder on articulating how their product or service solution actually demonstrates prevention by design as it proves to people in practical, immediate ways that they could sustain healthier longer lives.
No excuse for design teams to not have latitude to pick something worthy from the range of health and wellness issues, both physical and mental, as found in the overview to this year’s competition, which as is stated “emphasizes the role of lifestyle factors such as sleep, nutrition, physical activity, stress management, and social relationships in improving long-term well-being.” As I look at this list, I ponder, what backgrounds in health and life sciences will these teams come from?
Evolving over the years from the beginning of the Stanford Design Challenge in 2013 – where the solutions were less about preventive and more about restorative or assistive solutions – the designs while driven by technologies have not always been digital or high tech, such as the 2023/24 winner Asteriskfrom Spain, a modular board game designed for people with dementia that focuses on cognitive stimulation and fine motor skills.
For those not familiar with the judging criteria for pitch competitions such as this, Stanford weights 40 percent to Impact: will the design improve long life outcomes. The balance considered is in three areas – Originality, Feasibility and Affordability. This last of the criteria is only weighted at 10 percent, asking “would the cost of the design at scale make it a viable product for its target population? Personally as I watch these competitions, affordability at scale does rank higher in my mind.
As usual every year since 2013/14 when I started following this event I will research and evaluate best I can my choices for the Top 3 winning design teams when time comes in January 2026.
