Healthcare is at a turning point: we have more diagnostic data, clinical tools and digital touchpoints than ever before, yet many patients still experience their care as a series of disconnected interactions. As the World Health Organization notes, for healthcare to be universal it requires a shift from health systems designed around diseases and health institutions towards ones designed around people – making an integrated approach crucial.
Ahead of Bupa Symposium 2026: Health Connected, Professor Melvin Samsom, Bupa Group's Chief Medical and Sustainability Officer, explores how the next step forward in healthcare depends on connecting care around the person.
In brief:
- The core technologies and clinical capabilities necessary for connected care already exist: the opportunity is to make it a reality for people around the world.
- Meaningful transformation relies on three interconnected pillars: People (treating the whole person over a lifetime), Data (connecting what’s already available to enable better outcomes), and Care (creating one healthcare journey across different services, both physical and digital).
- Real-world examples like Sweden’s SWEDEHEART registry and Kaiser Permanente’s shared clinical records demonstrate that connected care is possible. Bupa Symposium 2026: Health Connected will explore ways to accelerate this momentum and turn opportunities into impact.
Putting people at the centre of care
Traditionally, healthcare has been built around specific systems and conditions – cardiology for heart disease, oncology for cancer and separate clinics for managing single chronic illnesses such as diabetes. While this approach has significantly advanced specialised medicine, it can leave patients navigating the gaps that occur when care is not effectively connected across teams, services and care settings.
As the WHO emphasises in its own framework for people-centred care, universal health requires systems built around people: bringing physical, mental and preventative health together and creating lifelong health relationships. Treatment, intervention and prevention can be personalised, and patients empowered to play an active role in decisions about their health. In practice, this means tailoring interventions to an individual’s daily habits, genetics and personal goals rather than relying on one-size-fits-all protocols. It also involves pairing early risk detection with direct access to health data so clinicians and patients can collaborate on proactive lifestyle changes and targeted treatments before chronic issues take hold.
Turning data into (early) action
Smarter care cannot happen without smarter data integration. In traditional healthcare models, critical patient information can end up trapped inside institutional silos, forcing people to retell their stories and leaving clinicians without a complete picture of their health. This can be difficult for both the patient and clinician.
When information is connected, decisions become smarter, risk can be identified earlier and next-best actions become more tailored to individual needs. Initiatives around the world are already demonstrating this potential. A powerful example of this is Sweden’s SWEDEHEART registry, which captures real‑time data on cardiac care across the country. By embedding outcomes measurement into everyday clinical practice, it enables continuous learning and improvement, resulting in measurable reductions in mortality and complications. It is a clear illustration of a learning health system in action, where data informs insight, insight drives change and change improves outcomes.
Similarly, American non-profit healthcare consortium Kaiser Permanente demonstrates what’s possible when information is connected across the full care pathway. With a shared clinical record of more than 12 million members, clinicians can access complete patient information wherever care is delivered. This supports earlier intervention, more coordinated decision-making and the delivery of care through new models, including virtual services, at scale. For the patient, this turns healthcare from a frustrating series of disconnected appointments into a single, cohesive journey.
Connecting care to bridge gaps
All this information can only deliver value when it reliably connects people to the right care at the right time. In today’s increasingly digital world, a genuinely connected model of care must bring together digital services and physical clinics with the professionals delivering treatment from day to day.
Crucially, it also requires bridging the traditional divide between funding and provision – aligning insurers and clinicians around early prevention and lifelong health. Global analyses by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Economic Forum consistently show that systems prioritising integrated, cross-sector partnerships achieve better chronic disease outcomes and build more resilient healthcare infrastructure.
We’re already seeing this model take shape locally. In Australia, Bupa’s Care Neighbourhoods bring together health insurance, dental, optical and hearing, Mindplace (Bupa’s growing network of mental health centres) and medical services within tightly connected communities, making it easier for customers to access the care they need through seamless digital and physical pathways. The initiative is already delivering clear results, with a 7.4% increase in customers using two or more health services, growing almost 35% faster than comparable locations.
Additionally, Bupa’s business in Poland, LUX MED, has a Patient Need Management system that is designed to guide patients to the most appropriate care pathway based on their symptoms and needs – creating seamless patient journeys through digital capabilities. A quarter of a million patients were redirected to the most appropriate services across four high-impact specialties in the first half of 2026 alone, with more than 75% seen by the same physician across subsequent appointments, supporting continuity of care.
Scaling connected care at Bupa Symposium 2026: Health Connected
Connected care isn’t a distant, theoretical vision: it’s already happening in forward-thinking clinics, digital health hubs and networks across the world. The opportunity for the next decade is to accelerate the pace of change, and the formula is clear:
People + Data + Care = connected care for better health
At Bupa Symposium 2026: Health Connected, we’ll be convening leaders, clinicians and innovators from across the global health ecosystem to share practical frameworks for scaling small-scale success into larger systems. Across the world, breakthroughs are already happening – brilliant digital pilots, smarter clinical pathways and transformative models of treatment. We already have the data, technology and proof of what people-centred, connected care can achieve. The opportunity to transform the lives of patients exists – now is the moment to turn it into genuine impact.
