The 2016 World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), a global initiative of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, will feature more research content and the largest group of healthcare leaders ever, including ministers and top level government officials from close to 100 countries.

“We have pre-confirmation from a record number of health ministers and key multilateral organisations, exactly the audience we seek to reach with our research and policy translation efforts," Egbert Schillings, CEO of WISH, told Gulf Times.

"We will engage them across 12 research topics, each one the result of many months of work with a highly distinctive cohort of senior leaders and experts from across the globe,” he explained.

The 2016 WISH taking place in Doha on November 29 and 30 will be attended by over 1,000 healthcare experts from all across the world.

According to Schillings, the summit will also have more research content than ever.

“At the core of WISH are two things – content and community. In each research cycle, we focus on 6-12 challenges on the global healthcare leadership agenda. We then build a network of experts around each and with them create a singular evidence base of the best ideas in global health care policy,” he stressed.

“At the summit, we unpack our findings and build the networks and partnerships that will see these ideas brought to life.The work of policy translation then takes place all year round. WISH has performed a pivot from a conference to a community that does implementation and policy translation,” noted Schillings.

“With each research report, we accomplish three things.The report breaks down a highly complex topic, such as autism or precision medicine, making it accessible to a wider audience.We then provide an analytical framework that healthcare leaders can use to create change in their own context. Finally, we provide case studies to show what the most successful examples are from around the world,” he pointed out.

This year, WISH will have 12 topics accompanied by a research project. "Each one is unique and no one else has done them in quite the same way. We do have some of the world’s best minds to work on them.”

According to Schillings, the Impact Zone at the summit this year, is a new addition to the format. “This is an area where people will see the impact of the WISH work locally and globally."

“Part of our role is to be a showcase for the vibrant local health economy of Qatar and highlight that the country is adding a fresh and distinctive voice to the global health policy conversation. The summit and our global outreach work serve as platforms for that.Thanks to the solid content produced through WISH, we are invited to share that with audiences around the world, highlighting the work of Qatar Foundation as an agenda-setter both at home and abroad,” he added.