Salzburg Global has long been a leading forum for the exchange of ideas on health and health care issues affecting countries worldwide.
At these meetings, agendas have been reset, affecting policy and practice in crucial areas, such as patient safety and patient engagement in medical decision-making.
In 2010, Salzburg Global launched a multi-year series of sessions to crystallize new approaches to global health and health care in the face of emerging challenges affecting us now and set to continue through the coming generation.
All countries face resource constraints in health care. Even in the wealthiest countries, demand for care threatens to exceed supply, and new ways need to be explored to find greater value from existing resources at whatever level they may be.
That search for greater value will be intensified given present secular trends – fiscal pressures, which will not be fully alleviated even if there is sustained growth in parts or all of the world; demographic pressures, again affecting countries in all parts of the world: as a Vietnamese Fellow put it – "Will we grow rich before we grow old?"; new disease profiles arising from globalization and chronic diseases, such as obesity, spreading in developed and developing countries alike; the threat of climate change, requiring both mitigation and adaptation from health care systems.
And, above all, there is the need to focus on the health and well-being of individuals and communities, and how to support these in a coordinated way, rather than on health care as an end in itself.