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The Future of Health


Learn more about how we’re working with partners to end infectious diseases and save the lives of mothers and children.

Power of Science and Innovation

The Future of Health

In the last two decades, scientists and health workers have invented and delivered solutions to treat and prevent deadly diseases. Childhood deaths have been cut in half.

We can cut childhood deaths in half again.

Timeline: Innovations shaping the Future of Health

How technology is advancing women’s health

Professor Valerie Mizrahi, Senior Scholar, Molecular Biology, University of Cape Town, Mark Suzman, CEO, Gates Foundation, Dr Akhona Vava, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and Kelly Chibale, Professor of organic Chemistry, University of Cape Town pose for a photograph after of a Roundtable conversation in Cape Town, South Africa, February 26, 2025.

Advancing health: A journey through science and innovation

This three-part conversation features three distinguished scientists—Professor Kelly Chibale, Dr. Akhona Vava, and Professor Valerie Mizrahi—exploring how science and innovation drive global health progress.

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Bean varieties developed by National Agricultural Research Organization photographed in Uganda.

500,000

Malnutrition is the underlying cause of half of child deaths before age 5. Adopting Multiple Micronutrient Supplements could save almost 500K lives by 2040.

Anita Zaidi tours the Veerangana Awanti Bai Women Hospital with physician, Kirti Tiwari in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India, on November 7, 2023.

60%

The postpartum hemorrhage drape, along with improved protocols for treating hemorrhage, can reduce the risk of severe maternal bleeding by 60%.

The power of auto-disable syringes

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the dangers of Africa’s reliance on a vulnerable global supply chain.

In 2023, the Gates Foundation made a $4 million dollar grant to Revital, a medical device manufacturing company in Kenya, to expand auto-disable syringe manufacturing in Africa and stabilize supply for routine immunization.

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Learn more about the foundation’s work to increase access to health care technologies around the world.

Great ideas come from everywhere

There are new diagnostic tests, treatments, and vaccines in the research and development pipeline that will be cheaper, more effective, and easier to deliver than the current state-of-the-art. With powerful digital technologies, the world can speed up drug development and deliver care to places healthcare providers couldn’t reach before.

View the foundation’s grants in support of novel technology platform technologies

A young farmer in his vegetable garden references information on his tablet.

The first principles guiding our work in AI

Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman shares the first principles on artificial intelligence (AI) that will be used to guide the foundation’s use of AI.

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More Ideas on the Future of Health