Dear HIFA colleagues,
Over the past 18 months HIFA has been in contact with a group called the Nature Medicine Quality Health Information for All Commission, launched in January 2025: 'Nature Medicine launches pioneering initiative to enhance quality of global health communication'. https://oneill.law.georgetown.edu/press/nature-medicine-launches-pioneer...
Despite the name this Commission is independent of HIFA. Importantly, however, we share exactly the same goal and therefore there is strong potential for collaboration.
The Commission's goal is 'improving access to accurate, timely and evidence-based information'. The HIFA goal is 'improving the availability and use of reliable healthcare information' or, more specifically, 'universal access to reliable healthcare information: a future where every person, every health worker and every policymaker will have access to the reliable healthcare inforamtion they need to protect their own health and the health of others'.
Below are selected extracts from a new article (August 2026) about the Commission, which draws on comments from each of the commissioners. The full text is available here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-026-04556-7
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'The commissioners behind the Nature Medicine Quality Health Information for All Commission explain why improving access to accurate, timely and evidence-based information is now essential to global health...
'The Nature Medicine Quality Health Information for All Commission will promote equitable access to trustworthy, evidence-based health information and establish health communication as a recognized public health discipline...
'Aleksandra Kuzmanovic: I firmly believe we can do much more to harness digital communication to ensure people have access to quality health information every single day, wherever they are, because good information is not just communication; it is a public health intervention that can save lives...
'Lawrence Gostin: I believe that quality health information is the most important public health issue of our lifetime...
'Scott Ratzan: Too often, communication comes at the end of the process, as ‘packaging’, rather than being integrated into how health systems think, operate and engage with the public...
'Lawrence Gostin: From all my experience, the biggest problem is that people rely on health information provided by ‘influencers’...
'Rafael Obregón: Building and maintaining trust is just as important as ensuring accuracy if people are to make informed health decisions...
'Scott Ratzan: Part of the commission’s work will involve developing health information quality indicators that could help people identify trustworthy, evidence-based information...
'Aleksandra Kuzmanovic: I hope that the commission will provide robust, actionable evidence on what truly works in health communication in a fast-moving, digital-first world...'
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The Commission is also independent of the WHO Global Coalition for Evidence, which was launched in late 2024. The Coalition is of particular interest to HIFA because it is the only initiative (apart from HIFA) we are aware of that aims to strengthen the global evidence ecosystem. The problem is that both HIFA and the Coalition have almost zero capacity - only one professional staff member each - to 'strengthen the global evidence ecosystem'. The Coalition is not yet fully up and running.
However, I am optimistic. I envisage a future - as early as 2027 - where WHO explicitly champions universal access to reliable healthcare information and secures more resources for the Coalition to become fully operational with support from HIFA, the Nature Medicine Commission and other partners. Understanding and strengthening the global evidence ecosystem is the surest way to achieve universal access to reliable healthcare information. There are no shortcuts.
I look forward to read your thoughts.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org