WEF 2026: Accessibility, affordability, and personalisation key to boost women's health, say experts

New Delhi, Jan 22 (IANS) Improving accessibility, affordability, and tailoring treatment and diagnostics to women's needs are some of the crucial measures to closing the health gap for the fairer sex by 2030, said experts at the ongoing World Economic Forum 2026 in Davos.

Women spend 25 per cent more of their lives in poorer health than men due to delayed diagnoses and limited access to appropriate care.

At a session titled " Breakthroughs in women's health, the experts highlighted how insufficient investment in sex-specific research and innovation for women results in preventable mortality, morbidity, and loss of economic potential -- estimated to be $1 trillion globally.

The panel unanimously pointed out that the focus needs to be on the human side of implementation.

“The greatest innovations are the ones that will end up being accessible, affordable, and used by women around the world,” said Gargee Ghosh Chasin, President, Global Policy and Advocacy, Gates Foundation.

“While invention is critical, access and use are equally critical. And that's what makes the difference between product and impact,” she added, while mentioning incredible innovations specific to women’s health, such as the HPV vaccine for cervical cancer, an AI-based ultrasound that will bring early diagnosis of high-risk pregnancy, and a microarray patch for contraception.

Sania Nishtar, Chief Executive Officer, Gavi-The Vaccine Alliance, stated that more than just innovation, it is important to translate science and evidence into policy, and then policy into pilots, and then pilots into scalable delivery.

“Innovation has to be matched with delivery capability. And the challenge is that if you do not have that delivery capability, if you do not have sustainable financing, you're unable to use innovations for the impact that they're intended to have,” she added.

Nadia Calviño, President, European Investment Bank, stressed the importance of primary health and the distribution of the preventative treatments to women.

“Primary health is the starting point for a healthy society. Of course, women's health is the basis for a healthy society, a stable society. So, I really think we have to put a lot of focus on that, the family doctors, the way that we can get these medicines and these preventative treatments to every woman around the world,” Calviño said.

Orazio Schillaci, Minister of Health, Ministry of Health of Italy, called for increasing the number of clinical trials tailored for women and personalising treatment for women. Schillaci also mentioned the potential of artificial intelligence in enhancing the health sector.