Published: 01/29/2026

By Catherine Wu, Global Health Communications Assistant

Recent dramatic changes in global funding and global governance pose great challenges, but also offer opportunities to imagine and build more sustainable and equitable systems for the future. During the Global and Planetary Health Research Convening on Jan. 28, the opening keynote explored seven principles for reimagining global health. The keynote was presented by mike Reid, MD, associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and chief science officer in the Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy (GHSD) at the U.S. Department of State.

mike Reid, MD, presents 7 principles for reimagining global and planetary health during the 2026 Research Convening. Photo by Lour Drick Valsote
mike Reid, MD, presents 7 principles for reimagining global and planetary health during the 2026 Research Convening. Photo by Lour Drick Valsote

In his talk, Reid outlined seven considerations that he thinks are critical for the future of global health:

  1. Reid argued for the field to grow from a “single epistemology” — which fails to “make sense at home” for Americans and fails to include researchers from low and middle income countries (LMICs) in the research narrative — to a “shared global knowledge.”
  2. Reid advocated for health governance to “reflect a multipolar role,” describing an evolved role for middle powers as well as for the WHO.
  3. Reid described a new vision of health financing, which extends beyond the aid paradigm.
  4. Reid argued that climate is not a “side chapter,” but the “content” of the global health landscape, where climate shocks lead directly to health shocks.
  5. Reid outlined how innovation, including AI, will reshape global health. Specifically, AI has the potential to scale either care or harm — with governance decisions determining which.
  6. Reid described how “healthy health systems thrive on prosociality,” noting that platforms such as social media shape behavior, and behavior in turn shapes health. For instance, he described how countries with more social behavior tended to demonstrate more resilience and better outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  7. Finally, Reid encouraged “moral ambition in an age of uncertainty,” emphasizing that global health faces fatalism or moral ambition. He encouraged the audience to deliberately act on their morals to help create a better, more just world.

Reid’s keynote kicked off a day dedicated to reimagining global and planetary health. Read more about the 2026 Global & Planetary Health Research convening here.