Global Health Reset

A synthesis report from a high-level roundtable at the 2025 World Economic Forum – Davos, Switzerland

Every year, nearly a quarter of people around the world are impacted by infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatitis, and neglected tropical diseases. Tuberculosis (TB) is the world’s leading cause of death by infectious disease, surpassing COVID-19 by killing more than 1.25 million people in 2023, despite being preventable and curable. Furthermore, infectious diseases cost countries billions in lost workforce productivity and health care costs – $17.5 trillion from tuberculosis alone.

Complicating the global health landscape, funding for global health programs has become more challenging following the announcement of the new US Administration to reevaluate and pause foreign aid for at least 90 days. With the United States being the top global health donor globally, the repercussions of this suspension of foreign aid is set to produce seismic impacts on global, regional and national health outcomes in the immediate and long term.

As the global health community seeks solutions in a resource-constrained environment, emerging technologies could have a critical role to play on population health, and economic stability, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. From AI applications diagnosing illnesses from an ordinary cough to Starlink providing secure connectivity for remote clinics and enhancing disease surveillance, these breakthroughs could pave the way for scalable, life-saving, and cost-effective solutions.

To elevate these global health challenges and opportunities, Foreign Policy, in collaboration with Stop TB Partnership, convened a high-level roundtable on “Global Health Reset: Leveraging Digital Tech to Combat Diseases and Strengthen Health Systems” in Davos, Switzerland on January 21, 2025. Global leaders, innovators, and investors participated in a candid Chatham House Rule discussion on how strategic multisector engagement and innovative health solutions can address gaps in diagnostics and health care access, improve health outcomes, and strengthen health systems at scale. This report distills insights from that discussion and the ways in which a range of actors can partner to leverage technology to combat disease and improve health outcomes around the world.

The following served as key discussion topics during the event:

• Global Health Disparities and the Impacts of Under-Resourced Diseases: Despite advancements in combating diseases like COVID-19 and malaria, millions still face the threat and burden of infectious diseases such as airborne tuberculosis or hepatitis, with significant societal and economic impacts. What are the risks and realities characterizing the current global health landscape?
• Examples of Game-Changing Technologies in Global Health: Innovations like AI-powered diagnostics, digital health tools, and connectivity solutions (e.g., Starlink) offer scalable and cost-effective pathways to improve disease detection, management and healthcare access, especially in LMICs. What are some innovative examples of technologies’ application and impact on global health – ranging from ‘low-tech’ to ‘high-tech’?
• Key Enabling Factors Necessary for Scale: What are some of the specific policy, market, investment, or other barriers inhibiting tech integration and adoption and what is needed to create more enabling environments for the application, and scaling of innovative solutions as well as collaboration?
• Collaborative Action for Scalable Impact: How can policymakers, innovators, and investors partner to leverage complementary capacities to materially strengthen healthcare systems, advance health equity worldwide, advance towards ending TB and other diseases and reach SDGs?
• Priorities and the Road Ahead: Amid complex global challenges, what do you find most promising and how can that be magnified? What is your 2025 call to action and what can you/your organizations do to end TB and other infectious diseases and strengthen health systems globally?

Key Takeaways

Time-bound, cross-sectoral collaborative action can accelerate the operationalization of innovative health solutions.

Recognizing the urgency of combatting infectious diseases, participants from technology companies, nonprofits, philanthropies, multilaterals, and governments committed to translate dialogue into concrete outcomes. They proposed clear checkpoints throughout the year where measurable actions will be defined and progress tracked. The group acknowledged that not every challenge in TB eradication can be solved at once, but having consistent, time-bound commitments and collective accountability across sectors can drive progress in health outcomes. Moreover, testing the impact of digital innovations at scale requires the buy-in and participation of diverse partners at various levels, including local government and private sector partners. Participants noted that during COVID-19, for instance, many countries were able to deploy live data, and such proactive actions, once thought to be impossible, could expedite ending TB and contribute to shaping the future of global health. 

Strengthening primary health systems and building local health care capacity can create more opportunities to leverage digital technologies.

TB and other infectious diseases cannot be eradicated in isolation without a functioning primary health care system, which is the foundation for achieving universal health care. Strengthening primary health systems at the country level will increase system-wide disease prevention and enable more equitable access to care. Currently, many government health systems are underfunded, disincentivizing health care workers from working in public hospitals and clinics, as well as distorting medical supply chains in favor of private health entities. Many disadvantaged and poor communities, who are most vulnerable to infectious diseases, rely on public health systems. Therefore, service delivery in these facilities must improve by expanding local personnel capacity and creating incentives to enhance public health infrastructure and systems. When the primary health care system is well-funded, and the workers equipped with necessary digital health skills, then the foundation is set for integrating digital innovations that further improve health service delivery and thus health outcomes.

Seamless sharing of high-quality health data can unlock the full potential of health technologies.

Collecting reliable and standardized data, breaking data silos, and improving interoperability across different health domains will enable experts, policymakers, and practitioners to increase their understanding of the major drivers of diseases by having an integrated information source, which can lead to impactful technological solutions. At the global and national levels, there is a lack of collaboration and integration across data platforms, creating inefficiencies across health information systems and hindering the full use of data to inform decisions about how to design, implement, and evaluate health interventions. Beyond research and outbreak mapping, timely data must underpin policymaking and guide targeted health interventions where they are needed the most. 

People-centered approaches that bring prevention and diagnostic tools closer to communities have proven effective in combating TB and other infectious diseases. 

Emerging technologies risk widening the digital divide, excluding populations most vulnerable to diseases who lack access to reliable digital infrastructure. Reducing logistical and financial barriers to prevention and diagnostic tools increases their uptake among target populations. When these tools are tailored to the patients’ needs and preferences, they become more relevant and beneficial, especially when they cause minimal disruption to daily life. Participants gave examples of portable prevention and diagnostics tools currently being tested or on the market, including portable digital x-rays and compact skin test kits for TB detection. In addition, to further expand the adoption of these tools, public health information campaigns and programs that promote health-seeking behavior are crucial components in reducing health-related stigmas and spurring demand for health care.

Innovative global partnerships leveraging distinct strengths and complementary capacities can foster global health amid setbacks. 

Shifting donor priorities and mounting COVID-19 debt payments in low- and middle-income countries are straining the global health system. By aligning partnerships according to each partner’s distinct capabilities, stakeholders can spur innovations not only in technology but also in financing and implementing health interventions, making the most of constrained resources. At the same time, the private sector, especially corporations, can play a vital role working alongside multilaterals and nonprofits toward a shared mission.

Looking Ahead

By 2030, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to end the epidemics of tuberculosis, HIV/AIDs, malaria, and other communicable diseases. To date, the world has come a long way in reducing the prevalence and incidence of these communicable diseases, but recent setbacks in global health threaten to undermine this progress. As COVID-19 mortality declines, TB has once again become the leading cause of death from a single infectious disease. Yet, countries around the world, notably South Africa, stand out for their innovative and effective prevention and eradication efforts. While the challenges to global health are vast, identifying concrete areas for collaborative action, charting a clear, milestone-driven roadmap for partners, and deepening direct engagement can help to ensure that leadership gatherings such as the one at WEF translate expertise and insights into impact. Several participants committed to taking milestone-driven, collaborative actions to end TB in South Africa and to showcasing progress in Q4 of this year. South Africa’s G20 Presidency presents an opportunity for stakeholders to learn from the country’s experience and galvanize partnerships in global health throughout 2025 and beyond.

Photography by Eugene Zhyvchik for Foreign Policy.

This synthesis report from FP Analytics, the independent research division of The FP Group, was produced with support from Stop TB. FP Analytics retained control of the findings of this report. Foreign Policy’s editorial team was not involved in the creation of this content.