Today's Edition
DAVOS (ALETIHAD)
Speaking at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 in Davos, Mansoor Al Mansoori, Chairman of the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DOH), called for a fundamental shift in how health systems are designed, governed and scaled, moving from fragmented silos and isolated innovation to system-level health intelligence.
Addressing global leaders during the high-level dialogue, “Healthcare Needs New Ideas”, Al Mansoori emphasised that while innovation in health has accelerated, outcomes have not kept pace because most systems remain fragmented and focused on treatment rather than prevention.
“Health is our greatest wealth, if you focus on health, you will have thriving economies and societies,” said Al Mansoori. “In Abu Dhabi, we see health as integrated intelligent infrastructure. At the heart of it, people come first. It is an AI enabled system, with a vision and mission to care before it cures.”
He explained that this shift in mindset enables health systems to move from ‘sick care’ to being proactive toward building health systems that, “predict risk, prevent disease, and act to cure fast, to save lives, and early, to restore the health and wellbeing of individuals.”
He emphasised that Abu Dhabi’s intelligent system is already delivering impact, enabling earlier detection, faster emergency response, and more targeted prevention for individuals and population scale.
Al Mansoori also highlighted that treating health as infrastructure demands integration, transparency and quality. “You need to be willing to move away from isolated initiatives to one integrated system that can learn, adapt and improve continuously. Building systems designed for long-term compounding impact rather than short-term fixes. That requires long-term thinking, decisive policy choices, and the courage to reimagine the system as a whole.”
The session was moderated by Kathy Bloomgarden, Chief Executive Officer of global communications firm Ruder Finn, and featured panelists Michael Sen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fresenius; Deepak Nath, Chief Executive Officer of Smith+Nephew; and Nadine Hachach-Haram, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Proximie. Together, the panel explored why technology-driven health innovation so often fails to scale, and what new models of collaboration, governance and incentives are required to unlock population-level impact.
“We need to move toward a new way of thinking about healthcare. For most countries, and most governments, we're not thinking of care first, we're solving a problem one after the other without thinking system wide,” said Kathy Bloomgarden.
The discussion builds on the Department of Health - Abu Dhabi’s ongoing collaboration with the World Economic Forum as a Global Pathfinder within the Forum’s Digital Healthcare Transformation (DHT) initiative. As part of this partnership, the World Economic Forum published the white paper “A New Era for Digital Health: Abu Dhabi’s Leap to Health Intelligence” ahead of Davos, highlighting Abu Dhabi’s experience in moving from digital innovation to system-wide health intelligence and measurable outcomes.
The white paper positions intelligent health systems as foundational infrastructure, akin to energy or telecommunications, and presents Abu Dhabi’s model as a practical playbook for governments and industry leaders seeking to leapfrog traditional healthcare models through integrated data, strong governance and public–private collaboration.
Through its continued partnership with the World Economic Forum, the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi is working with global leaders to advance new approaches to prevention, healthy longevity and system resilience, and to support the global transition from fragmented healthcare to intelligent, learning health systems.
