Two-day WISH 2026 summit will examine how longer lives can be matched with healthier, more dignified, and more equitable health systems.
Doha, Qatar – 4 September 2026– The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), a Qatar Foundation global health initiative, today announced that its eighth summit will take place from 29-30 November 2026 at Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha, under the theme “The New Health Span”.
The summit will place Qatar at the center of a global conversation on one of the defining health questions of our time: how to ensure that longer lives are also healthier, more dignified and more equitably supported.
WISH 2026 will bring together leaders from healthcare, government, academia, research, technology, innovation, the private sector and civil society to examine how health is understood, delivered and governed in an era of rapid demographic and technological change.
Across many parts of the world, people are living longer than previous generations, reflecting major achievements in medicine, public health, and science and technology. Yet longer lives do not automatically mean better health. For some people, extra years are active and well supported; for others, they are shaped by chronic illness, isolation, unaffordable care, or systems that were never designed for aging populations.
“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?” said Dr Slim Slama, CEO of WISH.
“No single country, sector or discipline can answer this question alone. It requires the experience of health systems at different stages of development, the insight of researchers and practitioners, the perspectives of policymakers and the voices of communities themselves. WISH brings these diverse global perspectives together in Doha so that evidence, experience and ideas can be examined with the seriousness these challenges demand,” he added.
The summit program will be organized around five pillars: The Longevity Dividend, Financing the Cure, AI and Human-Centered Health, Future of Fertility and Health Diplomacy 2.0.
Sessions will explore how societies can support healthier aging and create conditions for people to remain active and connected for longer. They will examine the financing models needed to make breakthrough therapies accessible and sustainable. Discussions on AI and human-centered health will explore how artificial intelligence can strengthen health systems while safeguarding trust, safety, and accountability. The Future of Fertility pillar will address emerging scientific advances, alongside complex ethical and regulatory questions. Health Diplomacy 2.0 will consider how countries work together on health amid conflict, climate pressures, migration, disease outbreaks, and supply chain disruptions.
Together, these discussions will ask what needs to change in systems, policies, technologies, financing models, and communities so that longer life can also mean better life. This wider view is central to WISH, which creates space for health to be considered not only as a clinical issue but as something shaped by decisions, systems and relationships across society. It also ensures that perspectives from different health-system realities – including countries where innovation is often needed most but reaches people last – are part of the same global conversation.
WISH 2026 reflects Qatar’s longstanding commitment to advancing global health dialogue and international cooperation for over more than a decade. Since its establishment in 2012, WISH has conducted policy research, produced policy-focused reports, and convened international experts to examine health challenges affecting societies across regions. WISH 2026 will build on this body of work while opening a new conversation on how longer lives can be matched by healthier, fairer, and more resilient health systems.