Building Health Systems for Tomorrow: Inside the Global Health Futures Forum at the United Nations
Building on three years of leadership through the Health Equity Forum, GHFF 2026 placed national health priorities, technology, innovation, and capital pathways under one roof, moving from identified needs toward practical implementation
On Thursday, September 24, PVBLIC Foundation convened the Global Health Futures Forum (GHFF) 2026 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The Forum brought together senior leaders from government, healthcare, technology, investment, philanthropy, academia, and multilateral organizations, all committed to strengthening healthcare resilience and advancing health equity.
Throughout the day, the conversation returned to a single question: what will it take for health systems built for yesterday to meet the needs of tomorrow? The program addressed the new infrastructure for global health, the path from innovation to population impact, government leadership in times of crisis, and the role of culture, mental health and sport in shaping healthier futures.
Rethinking how health systems are built
Welcome remarks were delivered by Stephen Keppel, President of PVBLIC Foundation; Enrique Arbeláez, Co-Founder of the Health Equity Forum and Forum Committee Chair; and Amir Dossal, President of the Global Partnerships Forum.
The opening conversation, "The Global Health Reckoning," moderated by Ana Rold, CEO of Diplomatic Courier, challenged traditional approaches to how care is designed and delivered, from prevention and earlier intervention to AI, data, and new models of care. George Tomeski, CEO of Helfie AI, and Dr. Stephen Shaya, Managing Director of Akkad Holdings, joined the discussion. Their exchange reflected a conviction shared by Helfie AI and Akkad Holdings, both partners of the Forum: that technology and capital can make proactive health accessible to far more people.
That question carried into "Building the New Infrastructure for Global Health," moderated by Stephen Keppel, President of PVBLIC Foundation, with Stefan Kulik, COO of Helfie AI; James Filbey, Founder and CEO of J. L. Filbey & Sons; and Sanskriti "Sans" Thakur, Chairman and CEO of Tower Capital. The panel focused on what it takes to move beyond pilots, from new financing structures and resilient workforces to stronger supply chains and technology transfer. Tower's participation, alongside that of J&B Medical, also a partner of the Forum, underscored how much the future of health systems depends on aligning capital with the capacity to deliver care at scale.
From promise to population impact
The conversation then turned to technology. "Health Innovation: From Promise to Population Impact," moderated by Dr. Eva-Marie Muller-Stuller, Chief AI Strategist and CEO of The Hummingbird Group, asked how AI and data can move from experimentation to impact at scale. Manika Gupta, Founder and CEO of Privacy Evolved, Shalina Wadhwani, Executive Vice President of the Wadhwani Family Office, and Daniel Kang, Medical Founder of AEON, discussed how governments, health systems, technology companies and investors can address data, privacy, security and trust while ensuring that these tools strengthen, rather than widen, access to better health outcomes.
Government leadership for healthier futures
The Honourable Michael Joseph, Minister of Health and Environment of Antigua and Barbuda, delivered a keynote address, which opened the way to a closer look at how governments are putting health transformation into practice.
In "From Policy to People: Government Leadership for Healthier Futures," moderated by Virginia Villar Arribas, Deputy Director of the Private Sector Partnerships Division at the World Food Programme (WFP), health officials from three regions shared how their countries are building systems prepared to respond when crises strike: Howard Lynch, Chief Technical Director of Policy, Planning and Development at the Ministry of Health & Wellness of Jamaica; Dr. Andelys de La Rosa, Vice-Minister of Public Health of the Dominican Republic; and Aristo Setiawidjaja, Special Advisor to the Minister of Health of the Republic of Indonesia. The discussion addressed preparedness, the role of nutrition and food systems in times of crisis, and the growing impact of natural disasters on communities and health systems.
The theme continued in an interactive session on disaster recovery, which became a moment of open exchange with the audience. Enrique Arbeláez took the stage to pose a series of questions for discussion, followed by a live question-and-answer exchange with the room.
Technology, access and the next generation of care
In the afternoon, "From Innovation to Access: Building the Next Generation of Health Care" brought together David Rhew, Global Chief Medical Officer and VP of Health and Life Sciences at Microsoft, and Enrique Arbeláez for a fireside conversation. They explored how emerging technologies can move beyond pilots to create sustainable models of care, particularly for rural, underserved and resource-constrained communities.
Culture, mental health and sport as platforms for health
A significant part of the program looked beyond the traditional boundaries of healthcare. In "Health Meets Culture: The Bold New Playbook for Impact and Growth," Gail Horwood, Chief Marketing & Customer Experience Officer of Novartis US, and Liliana Gil, Co-Founder of CULTURE+ Group, discussed marketing as the science of behavior change: starting from the behavioral problem to be solved, understanding the fear, misconception, or friction behind it, and making the next step easier. They drew on the 2026 Cannes Lions Pharma Grand Prix-winning "Relax Your Tight End" prostate cancer screening campaign and the NFL partnership to show why having the best medicine is not always enough if people are not informed, motivated, and able to act. The conversation reflected a belief shared by Novartis and Cien Health, both partners of the Forum: that advancing health equity requires understanding the people and cultures that health systems are built to serve.
Florian Müller, Founder of Mental Health in Fashion, followed with a Power Talk on how industries outside traditional healthcare can become platforms for mental health awareness, prevention and change.
The Forum closed with "The Power of Sport to Shape Healthier Futures," moderated by Robert Skinner, Chief of Partnerships and Global Engagement at the United Nations. Angela Ruggiero, Co-founder of the Tower Sports Science Platform at Tower Capital Group, and Duncan Watmore, Head of Elite Performance at PEAK4, examined how the reach of sport can become a platform for prevention, community health, education, and healthier behaviors. For Tower and PEAK4, esteemed partners of the Forum, the discipline and science behind elite performance can become tools for helping people stay healthy well beyond the field.
Across the day, from the infrastructure that will sustain future health systems to the roles of government, technology, culture and sport, one idea ran through every conversation: resilient and equitable health systems cannot be built by any single sector alone. By bringing national health priorities, innovation and capital together, the 2026 Global Health Futures Forum (GHFF) carried forward the work begun three years ago through the Health Equity Forum, and moved the conversation another step from identified needs toward practical implementation.
This article was written by Bárbara González, Communications Coordinator, and Sergio Fernández de Córdova, Founder & Executive Chairman of PVBLIC Foundation, an organization working at the intersection of Nature, Technology, Capital, and Multilateralism in partnership with sovereign governments, multilateral institutions, development finance organizations, and global family offices.
→ Explore PVBLIC's work at pvblic.org
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