Five Priorities for Health Care Leaders in 2026 

The health care sector will remain in immense flux in 2026. Innovation continues at a relentless pace. Geopolitical and domestic political pressures challenge established business models, while politicizeddebates and misinformation undercut public trust in medical science. For corporate leaders to deliver real value to patients and their organizations, they must focus on these five priorities to navigate the path ahead in 2026: 

Adopt Ambitious Incrementalism

In 2025, health care infrastructure unraveled: cuts to public health and research funding; federal agency realignments and attacks on evidence-based medicine. For many, “wait and see” and avoiding the limelight was the right strategy. 

Yet corporate health leaders must now move beyond crisis mitigation even as emergencies continue. In a sector often characterized as slow moving and highly regulated, there are opportunities to tackle real issues by addressing the affordability agenda, innovative partnerships to embed artificial intelligence (AI) through the health care ecosystem, redefining delivery models, or transforming patient experiences with direct consumer efforts. 

Ambitious incrementalism—being bold in health outcomes but incremental in communications and advocacy steps to achieve them—has more opportunity than ever to advance policy, debate and patient outcomes. Organizations that clearly articulate and consistently deliver a vision for change can help reshape the health care ecosystem for the long term. 

Embed AI Reputation into Your Strategy

Consumer behavior is shifting: company reputations and products are filtered through large language models (LLMs) that audiences use. APCO’s research shows nearly 40% of people now turn to search engines first for medical information with 77% of them read AI-generated summaries, while only 26% verify the original source.  

It’s not just about optimizing for search engines—it’s about understanding how LLMs shape your messages. In 2026, corporate health leaders must audit how LLMs represent their business, products and disease areas. Tools like APCO’s RepGenAI can track and compare your organization’s profile within generative AI platforms and benchmark against competitors. Using these insights to update your content and channel strategies will help ensure your narrative is reflected accurately in AI summaries. Those who understand and act on the “AI prism” of information first, will see long-term benefits. 

Update Your Operating Model for the Next Moment

In 2026, continual evolution is the norm. After a wave of high-profile corporate restructures in the health sector, expect further changes as businesses realign to meet the ongoing commercial and political pressures.  

The best health leaders will keep their organizations agile and focused. Regularly reviewing and refreshing operating models—the ‘software’ that makes organizations work—ensures teams are prepared to meet the next moment. Optimizing means creating pathways to shift from global strategy to local execution; using predictive analytics and opportunity scanning; establishing processes to collaborate cross-functionally; and identifying the right reporting cadence to ensure the business see the value of work in quanitfiable terms.  

If the team’s operating model sets the rhythm of the business, building the right skills and mindset with help people to deliver. As highlighted by Gagen MacDonald’s Five Priorities in 2026 for Human-Centric Leaders, culture must be the foundation. Empowering employees and building resilience with human-centric thinking help teams weather the challenges ahead and maximize opportunities ahead.  

Build Uncommon Partnerships

Collaboration is now essential. With the audience landscape in health care so fractured—politically, culturally and geographically—companies need to find the right partners to break through skepticism.  

Traditional partnerships between patient and community advocates remain important. Yet in an environment that challenges conventional science communications, success will come to those who can reach outside the traditional health silos and focus on building what we call un/common ground—the ground upon which progress is made—by identifying partners who hold different specialisms,perspectives and are trusted by audiences beyond, unavailable to the organization. 

Diverse partnerships do more than amplify a message, they create the opportunity to ideate, tackle big issues from alternative angles; identify gaps and bring about solutions that not fix the issues that plague the health ecosystem.  

Re-commit to Meaningful Measurement 

Creativity in health care communications is everywhere, yet measurement of this work often falls short of both the business and public expectations.  

Trust as a metric has become commoditized and yet reputation remains a tangible asset. True value comes from measuring outcomes—how campaigns shift behaviors among patients, doctors, policymakers and the public. This means embedding robust measurement into every campaign, aligning across the business to pull the data demonstrating behavior change and tracking the financial impactof changes in diagnosis rates, treatment uptake, policy or propensity to act.  

Without these metrics, demonstrating the dollar or health impact of your efforts remains indirect, intangible and leaders must push for a culture where measurement is not an afterthought but a core part of strategy. Only then can we prove the real value of our work and drive meaningful change in health care. 

Health care in 2026 will be shaped by continuous change, technological transformation and the need to articulate the value of the business models that support it. By adopting ambitious incrementalism, embedding AI reputation into strategy, updating operating models, building uncommon partnerships and recommitting to meaningful measurement, leaders can drive real value for patients and organizations in a rapidly evolving environment. 

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