A Healthspan Initiative
Five more healthy years.
This decade.
Adding healthy years to life, on purpose. We start close to home, with one state run as a living lab to find, prove, and scale what actually works. Then we take it national.
The gap
The years we are already losing
We live longer than any generation before us, and spend more of those extra years unwell. The last decade of an average life is increasingly a decade of decline, and much of it is preventable.
This is not a dream of new biology. It is recoverable waste: reclaiming years we are currently losing, for the people who live them and the economy that carries them.
lived in poor health at the end of an average Australian life
Victorians live with a chronic condition that prevention could delay
the scale of the economic prize if we close the gap, on current modelling
Figures are indicative, drawn from public health and economic modelling; sources will be published with the full vision. 5×5 exists to turn estimates like these into measured outcomes.
The vision
The world’s first longevity-ready state
A whole state run as a living lab for healthy life, starting in Victoria. One health system, one dataset, one government, and the people to match a promising intervention to a population that can prove it. Not another report, but a place where what works gets found, validated, and put to work.
Prove it here, then scale it: nationally, and to every ageing economy looking for the same answer.
How a living lab works
Experiments, infrastructure, ecosystems
A living lab is not a building. It is a loop: run an experiment, turn what you learn into shared infrastructure, and use it to grow the ecosystem that scales what works. We run this as a set of Labs, each one a focused framework that cycles the loop and iterates as the evidence comes in.
Experiments
Run small, prove fast
Each Lab starts with sharp, measured trials of real interventions in real settings. One clear question, one honest answer, scored on the impact scorecard. Fast enough to learn, rigorous enough to trust.
Infrastructure
Build once, reuse everywhere
The measurement, data, consent, and partnerships that every experiment reuses. Each trial leaves the Lab stronger than it found it, so proof gets cheaper and faster the more we run.
Ecosystems
Scale what works
The coalition, capital, and policy pathways that carry a proven intervention beyond a single trial and into the system, where it reaches a population and compounds.
The exchange
You bring the proof.
We bring the reach.
If your intervention can add healthy years, we help you prove it at scale — matching validated work to the funders, cohorts, and policy pathways that turn evidence into population impact. You bring the intervention. We bring the testbed.
We are looking for the real thing: evidence-backed, measurable, replicable, safe. Proven interventions, not promising ideas.
Backed by a coalition of
Our approach
A clearer way to understand impact
A promising health innovation should be able to answer three questions: what changes, how much does it change, and how confident are we in the evidence?
At 5×5 we are developing an impact scorecard to make those answers easier to describe and compare. It looks at each intervention through three lenses.
Taxonomy of impact
What changed?
We identify the issue and the specific outcome, rather than treating all improvements as interchangeable.
Size of impact
How much changed?
We capture both relative and absolute improvement, so a claim such as a 20% reduction carries meaningful context.
Credibility of impact
How well supported is the claim?
We use a four-level evidence scale, from a self-reported result to a claim that has been replicated and independently validated.
The evidence scale
Higher is stronger. This is an approach we are developing, not a finished certification system. The aim is to help innovators communicate their results clearly, and help partners see both the potential impact and the evidence behind it.
The scorecard, applied
What it looks like in practice
Two interventions, scored on the same three lenses. The point is not the number, it is the honesty: what changed, how much, and how strong the evidence is behind it.
Virta Health
From published dataApp-based continuous care for type 2 diabetes.
What changed — taxonomy
Type 2 diabetes → blood-sugar control and reversal
How much — size
60%
of participants reversed their type 2 diabetes at one year. HbA1c fell from 7.6% to 6.3% (a 1.3-point drop). n ≈ 262.
How well supported — credibility
Externally studied and peer-reviewed (Indiana University Health; Diabetes Therapy, 2018).
Caveat: Non-randomised, company-sponsored; figures are for program completers.
A sleep-wearable startup
HypotheticalConsumer wearable claiming better sleep.
What changed — taxonomy
Poor sleep → self-reported sleep quality
How much — size
+40 min
self-reported sleep per night; around a quarter of users say they feel more rested. No control group.
How well supported — credibility
Customer testimonials and in-app self-report; no external study.
Caveat: Self-selected users; company-collected data.
Examples are illustrative. Virta Health figures are drawn from its published studies; 5×5 is not affiliated with the companies shown. The scorecard is an approach in development, not a certification.
Submit an intervention
Add healthy years to life
Have an intervention with real-world evidence that it extends healthspan? Tell us about it. We review submissions and follow up on the ones that fit.