The Mediterranean Healthcare Forum sits at the heart of the Mediterranean healthcare scene. This event gathers some of the most influential public and private leaders on the field from Europe, the Mediterranean and Africa serving as a meeting point for networking, growth and development, sharing knowledge and discussing the latest healthcare trends.

By 2050, the world will be the home of 10 billion human beings and the average age of the global population will be much older than it is now. In fact, two out five people will be over 60 years old, in addition to 434 million of people above 80 years old. This combination of exponential population growth and demographic changes will seriously accelerate the challenges we face in the universal access to health and healthcare around the world. To counter balance this situation, governments around the globe are expected to increase the expenditure in health care system reaching about 13% of the GDP in OECD countries by 2050.

The Mediterranean region has been seriously hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and its health systems have proven to be insufficiently prepared to articulate an effective and coordinated response. After the most intense months of the emergency, health systems are beginning to recover but with significant consequences.

The COVID epidemic is having a major impact on all global health systems and the Euro-Mediterranean region cannot escape this situation.

On the one hand, the countries on the northern shore have put maximum stress on both public health structures and care areas, devoting maximum efforts to dealing with the pandemic and vaccination, subjecting professionals to unprecedented stress, not to mention the economic and other consequences of this pandemic. On the southern shore, in the MENA countries, the situation, which varies greatly from country to country, is having serious consequences on health systems, in many cases with very precarious situations in the pre-pandemic situation.

Countries in Europe and the Mediterranean are facing common challenges related to healthcare. In fact, one of the most pressing issues is how build and put in place a sustainable and resilient health system in each of the countries that compose the Mediterranean region.

The forum will address the situation created by the pandemic, its consequences and the ways forward for health systems. In this line, the need of undertaking serious reforms in the Mediterranean health systems as well as in the type of needed infrastructures, the deepening of public-private partnerships, the role of the Health insurance industry and the reflection on the possibilities offered by new technologies in the Healthcare sector, are key issues.

With this aim, the 2nd edition of the Mediterranean Healthcare Forum brings together key stakeholders from the healthcare sector to facilitate and boost the continuous improvement of this industry in the region.