ABU DHABI, 8th October, 2026 (WAM) -- Health systems must become better at anticipating risk and acting before illness escalates, Future Health – A Global Initiative by Abu Dhabi highlighted at a media briefing, hosted by The Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DoH), ahead of the Abu Dhabi Future Health Summit 2026.
As advances in genomics, precision medicine and artificial intelligence expand the ability to understand health risks, the central challenge is translating that knowledge into timely, effective care. Earlier detection must be matched by the policies, investment, workforce capabilities and public trust needed to improve outcomes across populations.
This challenge will be at the forefront of the agenda at the Abu Dhabi Future Health Summit, taking place from 20–22 October under the theme “To Sense is to Predict”. The theme places a fundamental question at the centre of the global health conversation: how can health systems use what they know today to better protect health tomorrow?
Dr Noura Khamis Al Ghaithi, Undersecretary of the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, said, “The next chapter of health will be defined by our ability to act earlier. Scientific and technological advances are helping us understand risk with greater precision, but their value lies in how effectively we translate that understanding into better care and healthier lives. Through Future Health, Abu Dhabi is bringing together the expertise, policy perspectives and investment needed to advance this shift. Our ambition is to connect discovery with practical action, helping health systems anticipate challenges, strengthen resilience and support longer, healthier lives.”
The briefing also highlighted the Abu Dhabi Blueprints, a knowledge-sharing series drawing on Abu Dhabi’s capabilities and experience across six areas: longevity, healthy living, fertility, cancer, rare diseases, and genomics and therapeutics.
The Blueprints will bring practical learning and policy perspectives from Abu Dhabi into selected Future Health content and Summit programming, alongside broader international experience. Their purpose is to help nations and policymakers examine how approaches developed in one health ecosystem can inform progress in another.
A panel featuring Future Health’s Founding Partners—PureHealth, M42, the Institute for Healthier Living Abu Dhabi and Mubadala Bio—explored the implications of “To Sense is to Predict” for their organisations. The discussion considered how collaboration across healthcare delivery, research, technology and life sciences can help translate predictive capability into better health outcomes.
Adnan Anjum, Group Chief Commercial Officer, PureHealth, said, “For us, the future is about sensing early, intervening early and avoiding the risks that can make a person’s life much more difficult later. There are many events where people come together and talk about the future of health, but there are very few where the future is actually being built. Here, we are developing solutions and exporting those solutions.”
Dimitris Moulavasilis, Group CEO, M42, said, “By connecting insights at both the individual and community levels, we can diagnose diseases earlier, design targeted therapies and personalise care.” He added, “I cannot see a better platform globally for those discussions to take place and for us to determine how we deliver impact at national and global scale.”
Hamad Almarzooqi, Deputy Group CEO, Mubadala Bio, said, “Understanding enables us to develop the products the country needs, cover the whole healthcare journey and build a resilient life-sciences industry for the future of the UAE. The future of health and innovation cannot be built by a single entity or a single company. It requires the whole ecosystem to help shape it.”
Allan Boston, COO, Institute for Healthier Living Abu Dhabi, said, “If we can empower individuals with knowledge about what is influencing their future health, we can change their attitudes towards how they live their lives.” He added “That is one of Abu Dhabi’s key differences, and perhaps one of the reasons it is a leader in this field: the focus is on action.”
Future Health – A Global Initiative by Abu Dhabi delivers a year-round programme designed to advance this agenda across four key areas: Longevity and personalised precision medicine; digital health and artificial intelligence; resilience and sustainability of healthcare systems; and investment in life sciences.
Future Health’s year-round programme brings these disciplines together through research, innovation and global convening. Milestones include the inaugural Future Health Challenge, delivered with MIT Solve; the launch of the Future of Longevity and Future of Health Living whitepapers; participation as a Founding Member of the MIT Koch Institute’s BioConvergence Cancer Alliance; and seven Future Health Dialogues held in Abu Dhabi and alongside major international forums.
Together, these activities connect emerging ideas with evidence, expertise, funding and pathways to scale. They also provide a foundation for the Summit’s discussions on how health systems can move from recognising the potential of innovation to enabling its adoption.
The three winning teams of the inaugural Future Health Challenge will attend the Summit. Their solutions address earlier detection of health risks, population-level monitoring and faster decision-making by health authorities—practical capabilities that can support a more anticipatory approach to health.
More than 130 Forum speakers will participate across the Summit’s three days, addressing anticipatory health, health financing, women’s health, world health security and readiness for infectious disease threats.
Speakers highlighted at the briefing included Dr Fatima Al Kaabi, Director General of Emirates Drug Establishment; Matteo Franceschetti, Co-Founder and CEO of Eight Sleep; Sir Martin Evans, Nobel Laureate in Medicine; Elena Bonfiglioli, Global Business Leader, GM Healthcare, Pharma and Life Sciences at Microsoft; and Angeline Ndayishimiye, First Lady of the Republic of Burundi. Health Ministers from Armenia, Egypt, Montenegro, Kosovo and Colombia will also join local and international experts.
By bringing policymakers, healthcare providers, researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs and investors into the same conversation, the Summit will examine the decisions needed to make earlier intervention a practical reality—from how care is financed to how evidence is evaluated and innovation is adopted.
The Abu Dhabi Future Health Summit 2026 will build on Future Health’s year-round work to advance a shared ambition: health systems that anticipate risk, respond effectively and help people live longer, healthier lives.