WISH 2026 asks the question global health can no longer avoid: are longer lives actually better ones?

Living longer is one of modern medicine's great achievements. But it has also created a problem that health systems across the world are only beginning to reckon with: extra years of life do not automatically mean extra years of good health. That gap, between lifespan and health span, is the central question of the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) 2026.

Qatar Foundation's global health initiative has announced that its eighth summit will take place on 29 and 30 November 2026 at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha, under the theme "The New Health Span". The event will bring together leaders from healthcare, government, research, technology, the private sector, and civil society to examine how health is understood, delivered, and governed in an era of rapid demographic and technological change.

The New Health Span

The summit's five pillars define the agenda clearly:

• The Longevity Dividend — how societies can support healthier aging and keep people active and connected for longer
• Financing the Cure — the financing models needed to make breakthrough therapies accessible and sustainable
• AI and Human-Centered Health — how artificial intelligence can strengthen health systems while protecting trust and accountability
• Future of Fertility — emerging scientific advances alongside the ethical and regulatory questions they raise
• Health Diplomacy 2.0 — how countries cooperate on health amid conflict, climate pressure, migration, and supply chain disruptions

Dr Slim Slama, CEO of WISH, put it plainly: "The question at the heart of WISH 2026 is simple, but deeply consequential: how do we help people live not only longer lives, but better ones?" He added that no single country or sector can answer that question alone, and that WISH exists to bring evidence, experience, and ideas together in one place, with the seriousness the challenge demands.

Why does it matter?

For health systems across the GCC, this is not a distant concern. Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 has placed preventive health and healthy aging at the center of its national health strategy, with targets to increase healthy life expectancy and reduce the burden of chronic disease. The UAE has made similar commitments through its national health agenda, investing in AI-driven diagnostics, genomics, and long-term care infrastructure. Qatar itself is expanding its health system ahead of a growing and aging population.

But the harder truth is that health system design across the region, like much of the world, was built around acute care. Managing a chronic, aging population over decades requires different thinking: different financing, different workforce models, different technology, and different community infrastructure. WISH 2026 is one of the few forums where those conversations happen across geographies and disciplines at once.

The inclusion of Health Diplomacy 2.0 as a pillar also reflects where the region sits geographically and politically. Supply chain vulnerabilities exposed during COVID-19, ongoing pressures from climate and migration, and the need for cross-border cooperation on disease surveillance all remain live issues across the Arab world.

The context

WISH has been running since 2012 and has built a record of policy-focused research and international convening over more than a decade. Its value has always been in the breadth of participants it draws: not just wealthy health systems with mature infrastructure, but also countries where innovation is urgently needed but often reaches people last. That tension, between where health innovation is produced and where it is most needed, runs through all five pillars of the 2026 agenda.

Registration for WISH 2026 is open now at wish.org.qa.