August 2nd marked World Health Innovation Day – not as a celebration of shiny technologies or isolated breakthroughs (although we like those too!), but as an opportunity to reflect on what true innovation in global health really demands today. At Global Health Visions (GHV), we believe innovation is not just about the new. It is about the necessary – and the possible. That means asking hard questions about systems that no longer serve us and having the imagination – and humility – to design something better. Across the globe, many traditional donor-driven, vertical programs are fracturing as U.S. Government (USG) funding recedes and siloed health system structures are tested. Meanwhile, emergent pressures – from antimicrobial resistance to climate-linked shifts in disease patterns – demand a more integrated response.
But in that breakdown, we see opportunity.
We see the opportunity to reimagine what innovation looks like: integrated, multipurpose systems that are fit for purpose, country-driven and owned, and resilient by design.
Over the past two decades, global health programs have delivered extraordinary gains by tackling specific diseases through vertical investments. But we have hit a limit. Fragmented, duplicative, and non-interoperable disease programs – often legacies of Western-centric donor models – prevent LMICs from designing, financing, and adapting the health systems they need. Take one example from digital health: a recent review of 700+ digital tools across Sub-Saharan Africa found half clustered in just five health categories, with limited scale, signaling the “e-chaos” caused by fragmentation (1).
In the unfortunate breakdown of USG funding for global health, we have a tremendous opportunity to rebuild health systems in a way that is truly integrated and LMIC-led.
GHV’s work in multipurpose and collaborative surveillance is a clear example of what the next chapter of innovation can look like. We support efforts to leverage, align and connect surveillance approaches to be more integrated– so they serve multiple purposes, inform timely public health action, and are grounded in sustainable, country-led systems. Through our work in multiplex serosurveillance systems – which tracks population-level immunity and pathogen exposure through blood-based surveys, we are supporting advocacy efforts to move beyond single pathogen approaches so that systems can be more efficient, cost-effective, and inform public health decisions across disease areas.
We bring the same approach to topics such as point-of-care diagnostics, AMR, and sample transportation – thinking deeply about how to rebuild systems across pathogens, geographies, and data streams to track everything from vaccine coverage to health equity gaps to early warnings for outbreaks. And critically – how to support systems that are designed, governed, and financed by countries themselves.
Too often, innovation is defined narrowly – reduced to a new drug, vaccine, diagnostic, or tool. But in our view, innovation is more than just a product. It is a process. One that is inclusive, iterative, and deeply grounded in context.
No single institution – whether a ministry of health, a funder, or a pharmaceutical company – can solve systemic health challenges in isolation. As we highlighted in our recent insights paper, the next era of innovation depends on better partnerships – not just more innovative products.
That is why GHV places partnership at the core of our work. We lead global collaboratives and coalitions that bring together stakeholders across public, private, philanthropic, and multilateral sectors to define shared priorities and unlock aligned action. Through our work supporting the design, launch, and management of the AI for Development Funders Collaborative, we are working to ensure responsible AI development does not increase global inequality. In our work to support the scale-up of community-centered digital health platforms, we have on the local delivery ecosystems and partnerships – not just tech – required to deliver primary care, streamline referral systems, and keep patients at the center.
Ultimately, innovation in global health must start and end with people, from frontline health workers navigating fragile systems to local researchers building context-specific evidence, and from ministries of health weighing tough tradeoffs with limited resources to the communities whose lives are at stake.
At GHV, we are committed to a model of innovation that is human-centered and country-led – not only in theory, but in how we show up as partners. Whether through designing facilitation processes that elevate lived experience, building inclusive coalitions, or co-developing strategies that transfer power and decision-making, we are working to make this vision real.
On this World Health Innovation Day, we invite others to join us in asking:
The answers will not come from any one organization. But together, we can imagine – and build – something better.
