By Laurence Smith, Greybeard Healthcare Co-Founder
May 2026
The seventy-ninth World Health Assembly is being held in Geneva from 18 to 23 May 2026.
The purpose of the annual assembly is for delegates from 194 member states to “make decisions on health goals and strategies that will guide their own public health work and the work of the WHO Secretariat to move the world towards better health and well-being for all.”
The Assembly has had a vital role in shaping the World Health Organization’s activities since 1948, and has been responsible for significant progress in the effectiveness of healthcare services globally, including:
- Launch of first global disease-tracking service (1947)
- Guidance on appropriate use of essential antibiotics (1950)
- Publication of the first Essential Medicines List for use in all health services (1977)
- WHO priorities adapt to promote antiretroviral medication in the control of HIV infection and prevent AIDS (1987)
- Establishing the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (1999)
- Establishing a Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (2001)
- First use of the Strategic Health Operations Centre to coordinate emergency response (2004)
- Global targets agreed to prevent and control heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and chronic lung disease (2012)
- Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016)
- Novel coronavirus declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (2020).
The Greybeard Healthcare partners have pooled their collective experience and would like to submit for consideration our proposed ‘Areas of Focus 2026 (Top Ten), to build on recent successes and further advance standards of global healthcare services.
Our Top Ten are:
- Artificial intelligence: Global best practice protocols in the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence in healthcare services, especially around the use of personalized and/or genetic information
- Virtual healthcare: Achieving a step change in healthcare access through the acceleration of services that are bricks-and-mortar-agnostic, such as hospital at home, teleconsultation and remote diagnostics
- Population health: Refocusing resources in favour of population health programs such as early cancer detection, childhood obesity, and pediatric nutrition
- Medical innovation: Ensuring appropriate lessons are learned from the development of the Covid vaccine to inform the speed to market of future medical interventions and the management of clinical trials
- Neurology: Maximising the benefits of breakthroughs in knowledge about our least-understood organ: the brain (low-income countries have 80 times fewer neurologists per capita despite the burden of neurological complications such as diabetic neuropathy, meningitis, and idiopathic epilepsy)
- Antibiotics: Increased investment in tackling the threat posed by antimicrobial resistance to infection prevention and treatment
- People of determination: Global declaration that people with severe mental and physical disabilities (‘people of determination’) deserve respect and support in fulfilling their potential
- Ageing populations: Knowledge transfer to developing countries on meeting the challenges of their rapidly ageing populations during 2030-2050, so they can prioritise interventions
- Social media: Research into the benefits and challenges of social media on adolescent mental and physical wellbeing – including its potential impact on depression, loneliness, communication styles, physical activity, misinformation, and suicide
- Hospital KPIs: Agreement on a suite of hospital performance key performance indicators covering quality, patient, workforce and financial measures that can be used for benchmarking and continuous improvement.
This ‘Top Ten’ list is not intended to be exhaustive, and we are aware that many worthy causes have not been mentioned. Nevertheless, we trust it will be of interest and value to policymakers attending the Assembly, as well as any others professionally involved in this vital topic.
