Revealing strengths and weaknesses in the global healthcare infrastructure, the COVID-19 pandemic will underpin much of the conversation at Expo 2020 Dubai’s upcoming Health and Wellness Week, which will gather stakeholders from across global healthcare sector later this week to collectively to-create inclusive health systems worldwide that are preventative and protective for all.

The Theme Week (27 January – 2 February), held in association with the Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences and the World Health Organisation (WHO), will also explore parity of mental and physical wellness in care systems, communities’ core role in healthy societies and technologies transforming healthcare access in remoter communities – helping, in turn, to avert disease outbreaks.

Expo’s eighth Theme Week across its 182-day run, the event will comprise various panel discussions across the site, including the Health and Wellness Business Forum next Tuesday (1 February) at Dubai Exhibition Centre, Expo 2020.

Her Excellency Reem Al Hashimy, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director General, Expo 2020 Dubai, said: “For us to be truly healthy, we must also be happy – because these two states of being are connected, deeply and inextricably so. If we do not come together to design an inclusive, crisis-proof global health system which transforms the way we access healthcare, strengthens our response to disease outbreaks, and balances our physical and mental well-being we cannot truly overcome the challenges laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Dr. Amer Sharif, Vice Chancellor of Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, MBRU, said: “We are proud to join hands with the Dubai Expo 2020 and the World Health Organization on the Health and Wellness Week which will address the very imperative topic of how to create a healthier, happier world. Since COVID-19, our lives were profoundly changed, today, almost two years post the pandemic it is crucial to continue the conversation on global healthcare infrastructures and be an active contributor to the global dialog on how technologies, medicine, and sustainability can be leveraged to prevent future pandemics. We, at MBRU, are honored to have joined the Expo 2020 team and WHO to support in developing this program. Our role in the Health and Wellness week is a true illustration of our drive as an academic institute to contribute to the conversation on a global scale to achieve healthier societies.”

Key speakers across the Week include the Hon. Mutahi Kagwe, Cabinet Secretary for Health, Kenya; Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General, World Trade Organisation and Former Minister of Finance, Nigeria; Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist at the World Health Organisation, paediatrician, and a world-renowned expert on tuberculosis and HIV; and Stephen Donnelly TD, Minister for Health, Ireland.

A full Health and Wellness Week events program, containing key details and ways to watch proceedings remotely though Virtual Expo, can be found here.

Expo 2020’s ten Theme Weeks, held under the World Expo’s Programme for People and Planet, are offering an exchange of inspiring new perspectives to address the greatest challenges and opportunities of our time.