Our Scans · (LF.3) Good Health and Well-being · Weekly Summary

In September 2015, 193 world leaders agreed to 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development. If these Goals are completed, it would mean an end to extreme poverty, inequality and climate change by 2030.
Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

• [New] AI and other new technologies are expected to transform healthcare in 2026, driving advances in diagnostics, drug development, and workload reduction for healthcare professionals. Euronews
• [New] Philips, a global health technology company, pointed to AI's potential for reducing healthcare workers' daily workload as one of the most promising advances. Euronews
• [New] We can expect workforce constraints will remain central to health policy debates in 2026. Euronews
• [New] Experts predict shifts in U.S. healthcare for 2026, focusing on affordability, consumer demands, mental health equity and the essential role of doulas. Managed Healthcare Executive
• [New] By the end of 2026, we will see agents granted genuine authority to act across the healthcare ecosystem: approving routine requests, routing patients, allocating resources, scheduling interventions. Pharmaphorum
• [New] When the inevitable hard lesson moments hit in 2026, lawmakers and regulators will be forced to define clearer boundaries between human judgement and machine authority in healthcare operations. Pharmaphorum
• [New] From ministerial leads for disability in every department to investing £1bn a year in employment support by the end of the decade, disabled people are being given opportunities they have too often missed out on in the past. Devon Live
• [New] 2026 will be less about proving the promise of women's health innovation and more about proving it has durability. FutureFemHealth
• [New] The most valuable women's health companies of 2026 will not be consumer apps but businesses solving unglamorous infrastructure problems such as diagnostics, reproductive care supply chains, maternal health logistics, and clinical workflow automation. FutureFemHealth
• [New] The emphasis on the workforce and inclusive care delivery will be one of the greatest contributions of female healthcare CEOs in 2026. The Arab Women Leaders
• [New] In 2026, the Middle East's healthcare sector will sit at the nexus of population pressure, technological acceleration, and policy reform. The Arab Women Leaders
• [New] With the trend of increasing complexity and ambition in healthcare systems throughout the Middle East, the role of a female healthcare CEO in 2026 will be a structural adjustment instead of a symbolic one. The Arab Women Leaders
• [New] With resistance to current treatments rising, climate change increasing mosquito ranges, and political uncertainties jeopardizing global health commitments, the innovative PfSPZ-LARC2 Vaccine offers timely hope for millions. EurekAlert!
• [New] As healthcare organizations ring in 2026, they will be ringing in a new era of AI regulation. JD Supra
• [New] The exorbitant privilege that the U.S. enjoys from the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency will persist well into the future. Whittier Trust
• [New] A new UCLA Health study links long-term residential exposure to the pesticide chlorpyrifos with a substantially higher risk of developing Parkinson's disease. SciTechDaily
• [New] Roughly a fifth of the UK's water supply is currently being lost to leakages and firms have been set a target to half leakages by 2050. The i Paper
• [New] In Bangladesh, where roughly 17 million people live with some form of disability - a significant portion being visually impaired - the lack of Braille materials in schools and public libraries remains a wall between a talented individual and their potential. The Daily Observer
• [New] AI has particular potentially out-of-this-world transformative potential for the under-pressure healthcare system. Australian Broadcasting Corporation
• [New] AI has transformed diagnostics, but 2026 will mark the year healthcare leaders use it to tackle the most pressing operational challenges. Chief Healthcare Executive
• [New] In 2026 we will move from hype to substance when AI clinical agents will not just support clinicians, but force a reset in healthcare. Chief Healthcare Executive
• [New] In 2026, AI - from generative to agentic - will continue to evolve from being used primarily as a cost-cutting tool to increasingly becoming a strategic driver of innovation across the healthcare ecosystem. Chief Healthcare Executive

Last updated: 12 January 2026