Global Health and Healthcare Strategic Outlook: Shaping the Future of Health and Healthcare
An insights report from the World Economic Forum, on the global health and healthcare challenges for the future, with a strategic outlook towards 2035.
Several challenges have faced healthcare globally over the past years, from the COVID-19 pandemic to social, economic, geopolitical and environmental difficulties. This is increasing the pressure on healthcare systems, particularly impacting vulnerable populations and healthcare workers.
The WEF’s strategic outlook sets out a vision for health and healthcare in 2035. It consists of 4 main strategic pillars, with equity as the foundational goal:
- Equitable access and outcomes
- Equilibrating access to determinants of health, ensuring health data is representative of the population and people with equal needs achieve equal health outcomes.
- Healthcare system transformation
- Structuring resilient healthcare systems to provide high-quality care under both expected and unexpected circumstances.
- Technology and innovation
- Cultivating an environment that supports funding, use and implementation of innovation in science and medicine
- Environmental sustainability
- Reducing the healthcare industry’s environmental impact, preparing for and addressing climate change for better health and wellness
The strategic outlook also identifies 8 potential “levers” which public and private stakeholders may employ to help overcome the challenges affecting healthcare systems:
- Cross-industry collaboration
- Digitalization, artificial intelligence and big data
- Global collaboration
- Policy and advocacy
- Public-private partnerships
- Innovative funding models
- Patient empowerment
- Targeted/selective decentralization
Ultimately, stakeholders across sectors, industries and geographies need to work separately and in partnership, to shape health and healthcare systems which are equitable, resilient, innovative and sustainable.
