The Global Wellness Institute (GWI) has committed to eliminating preventable disease with a programme called Wellness Moonshot, which was announced today (9 October 2017) at the Global Wellness Summit at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida.

GWI chair Susie Ellis joined former Surgeon General, Dr Richard Carmona on stage to make the announcement, accompanied by a powerful group of medical and wellness experts, including Dr Mehmet Oz, Professor of Surgery, Columbia University, and host of The Dr Oz TV Show, Dr Dean Ornish, founder and president of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, Dr Andrew Weil and Dr Elissa Epel.

Preventable diseases are responsible for up to 70 per cent of premature deaths in the world each year and the GWI has laid down a marker that it will work towards the eradication of these through its work.

The full name of the initiative is "Wellness Moonshot: Destination - A World Free of Preventable Disease".

“The time has come to pool our resources—knowledge, access, funding—and use our collective megaphone on the world stage to work towards achieving a world free of preventable disease,” said Ellis. “Unlike President Kennedy’s famous moonshot to send a man to the moon, where it was clear when the ‘mission was accomplished’ – this moonshot will require not one, but many incremental steps forward for humankind.”

The conference continues until Wednesday. Spa Business is live tweeting the event @elizterry.