It’s a new world. Just a few decades ago, most top hospitals were in the West. Patients who needed specialized care often traveled to facilities in the United States and Europe. Established destinations like the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center focused on marketing our services to potential international patients and their local providers. Today, global rankings and accreditation by the international joint commission tell a different story as local and regional investors develop high-quality hospitals and health systems around the world.

Although our field has had its fair share of recent challenges (including the pandemic and a significant rise in geopolitical turbulence), the trend toward meaningful global cooperation continues to accelerate. Emerging economies are crucial to this dynamism, thanks to the direct correlation between rising GDP and quality healthcare. When countries prosper, they tend to increase their investment in health services. Again, we see this phenomenon across the globe, including in India, China, Vietnam, Central Asia and Latin America.

I am continuously struck by this economic vitality and by the optimism and excitement among healthcare professionals. They look to the future. They’re keen on innovation, artificial intelligence, knowledge transfer and system integration. Their energy and enthusiasm is transformational.

The new environment calls us to shift our focus to building collaborative, mutually beneficial relationships among regional and global providers based on trust and respect, in support of our shared goal of providing patients with quality care that is as convenient and close to home as possible.

My travels continue to reinforce my conviction that, ultimately, we can achieve a global healthcare system that provides each patient with the same high standard of care. It is a monumental challenge, to be sure. Our quest is nothing less than to find ways to enable profoundly diverse societies to deliver uniformly excellent care. This will require a constellation of synergies that includes private and public sector cooperation, consistent benchmarking and data-sharing, varied reimbursement models, effective international governance and regulatory bodies, flexibility and creativity, and—most of all—cultural sensitivity informed by mutual respect and understanding.

Is this lofty goal attainable? Can diverse partners deliver uniformly excellent care in culturally varied settings? Given the breathtaking progress we’ve seen in bringing health and healing to so many people, confidence and optimism are in order. Imagine a day when local hospitals around the world are linked to sophisticated regional facilities that, when appropriate, can refer their most complex cases to global medical centers.

My conversations with colleagues around the world tell me that, together, we can arrive at a day when our fellow human beings—whomever they are, wherever they live and whatever their means—will receive the best care that modern medicine can provide.

We have our work cut out for us.