The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), an initiative of Qatar Foundation (QF), recently convened the first meeting of the WISH 2020 Policy Steering Committee, bringing together senior officials from key stakeholders in the local healthcare sector.
The Policy Steering Committee will act as a local advisory board for WISH 2020, proactively promoting issues that are identified as important by the healthcare community in Qatar and ensuring that they are included in reports prepared for discussion at WISH 2020, which will take place next fall and will convene the global community of healthcare leaders in Doha for the fifth time.
Chaired by Sultana Afdhal, CEO, WISH, members of the Policy Steering Committee are drawn from key stakeholders in Qatar’s healthcare sector with significant ongoing interest and relevance to the work of WISH.
The new Policy Steering Committee will provide a Qatar-specific perspective and provide recommendations within the framework of Qatar’s National Health Strategy, 2018-2022.
Ms. Afdhal said: “Ahead of our 2020 summit, the leadership of WISH identified a need to broaden our outreach and engage the wider healthcare sector in Qatar. Through this new committee, we have created a forum to partner with regulators, healthcare providers, and stakeholders in the private and public sectors as well as academia in Qatar, to bring to the fore the prevalent issues impacting the health and wellbeing of communities that demand our urgent attention. We hope to produce innovative solutions that will inform the discussions at WISH 2020, and lead to healthcare innovations that will result in a better quality of life for the people of Qatar and also on a global scale.” Once the committee has agreed on relevant topics, member organizations will nominate individuals to constitute an expert working group, which in turn will be tasked with producing reports for presentation at WISH 2020. The committee is also expected to explore opportunities for alignment with the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar™ given the potential for collaboration between health and sports organizations and the need to tackle non-communicable diseases.