Rare diseases remain a formidable public health challenge. The key to unlocking breakthroughs in diagnosis and treatment is fostering dynamic international partnerships and streamlined data sharing. The empowerment of patient advocacy groups is essential, as they are pivotal in driving innovative research and elevating health-care standards for these often under-represented conditions.

Conversational agents (CAs) are computer programs designed to engage in human-like conversations with users. They are increasingly used in digital health applications, for example medical history taking. CAs have potential to facilitate health-care processes when designed carefully, considering quality aspects and are integrated into health-care processes.

Historically, the health-care response to natural disasters has been reactive, with responders rushing to the scene using deployable assets to treat those affected. The global community must increase efforts to complement this approach with proactive preparedness and readiness strategies designed to enhance disaster health-care capacity at a local level.

The concept of syndemics specifies which, where and how disease concentrations and interactions emerge and persist. Recognizing multimorbidity within a population or region is fundamental to syndemics because multimorbid conditions often share upstream drivers, including social inequalities. Applying syndemics to health care can inform clinical and policy interventions.

Refugees are a growing and dynamic global population that require theories, programmes and policies to improve community-based integration and health care. Although many gender, cultural and system barriers persist, countries must innovate to support migration flow, universal care coverage, trauma-informed approaches and health equity for refugees.

Current medical education propagates bias and power imbalances in medical institutions, which cascade into professional practices and organizations. To serve the needs of all, we need an understanding of how modern medicine was set up, the biases that are embedded in the structures of health care and strategies to transform those structures.