Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Around the world, countries were facing interconnected crises—from climate change to social inequities—that placed growing pressure on health systems and communities. These overlapping challenges underscored the need to shift from top-down decision-making toward models that valued patient voices and lived experience. When people directly affected by health challenges were meaningfully included, systems became more resilient, responsive, and equitable.
This World Health Summit 2025 Global Health Lab session – co-hosted by The Synergist – explored how patient engagement could strengthen health outcomes and societal resilience during global polycrises. The discussion was moderated by Amanda Bok (The Synergist). It examined the evidence generated since the 2024 World Health Assembly resolution on social participation and highlighted how collaboration with patients and communities had already improved care across diseases and regions.
The Speakers, Fiona Adshead (Sustainable Healthcare Coalition), Mari Tikkanen (Scope Impact), Durhane Wong-Rieger (Organization for Rare Disorders), and Rüdiger Krech (World Health Organization, WHO) shared examples of how lived experience had influenced policy design, service delivery, and monitoring. They explored lessons from health and climate action, showing how strong communities could contribute to a “one planet, one health” future.
The session encouraged participants to imagine what became possible when patients were seen not as costs or problems but as co-drivers of solutions. It underscored how partnership-based and people-centered systems could help societies navigate future crises more effectively.
The World Health Summit is the leading global platform bringing together science, politics, civil society, and the private sector to catalyze collaborative and innovative solutions for key health priorities. Learn more: worldhealthsummit.org
Around the world, countries were facing interconnected crises—from climate change to social inequities—that placed growing pressure on health systems and communities. These overlapping challenges underscored the need to shift from top-down decision-making toward models that valued patient voices and lived experience. When people directly affected by health challenges were meaningfully included, systems became more resilient, responsive, and equitable.
This World Health Summit 2025 Global Health Lab session – co-hosted by The Synergist – explored how patient engagement could strengthen health outcomes and societal resilience during global polycrises. The discussion was moderated by Amanda Bok (The Synergist). It examined the evidence generated since the 2024 World Health Assembly resolution on social participation and highlighted how collaboration with patients and communities had already improved care across diseases and regions.
The Speakers, Fiona Adshead (Sustainable Healthcare Coalition), Mari Tikkanen (Scope Impact), Durhane Wong-Rieger (Organization for Rare Disorders), and Rüdiger Krech (World Health Organization, WHO) shared examples of how lived experience had influenced policy design, service delivery, and monitoring. They explored lessons from health and climate action, showing how strong communities could contribute to a “one planet, one health” future.
The session encouraged participants to imagine what became possible when patients were seen not as costs or problems but as co-drivers of solutions. It underscored how partnership-based and people-centered systems could help societies navigate future crises more effectively.
The World Health Summit is the leading global platform bringing together science, politics, civil society, and the private sector to catalyze collaborative and innovative solutions for key health priorities. Learn more: worldhealthsummit.org
