Welcoming participants to the Brazilian city, and drawing on their extensive collective experience in the health sector and in public service, the Opening Ceremony was addressed in person yesterday by Dr Paulo Rebello, President of Brazil’s National Supplementary Health Agency (ANS),; Meiruze Freitas, Director of the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA); Dr Daniel Soranz, Municipal Health Secretary of Rio; Dr Pedro Westphalen, Federal Deputy and the President of the Mixed Parliamentary Front in Defence of Health Services; and Caio Antonio Mello Souza, Subsecretary of the State of Rio de Janeiro for Health.

Dr Muna Tahlak, International Hospital Federation (IHF) President and President and CEO of Latifa Hospital in Dubai, welcomed the IHF’s international network to its 47th Congress and spoke of the power of international knowledge exchange to transform healthcare delivery locally.

Dr Jarbas Barbosa da Silva Jr, Director of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization, gave a keynote address sharing words of encouragement on the ability of the gathered leaders to rise to the challenges facing hospital management in the region.

Dr Soranz then provided some local context: “One in four Brazilians has a health plan, which is a significant number and demonstrates the size of this sector in the country. The message I want to convey is that it is necessary to look at society with the aim of developing good practices for the benefit of the population. We need to adopt stakeholder health, leaving aside the shareholder system. The only purpose must be access to quality care and sustainability in the sector.” 

Freitas shared reflections on the importance of innovation and sustainability in the future of health regulation and surveillance: “ANVISA recognises its role in public health, coordination of health services and environmental sustainability as a major challenge. We intend to transform regulatory challenges into opportunities for innovation. It is imperative that we put the needs of patients as our focus. We live in an era where AI affects decision-making and it is necessary to maximise data quality. I draw attention to innovation being oriented towards new solutions that benefit patients and reduce the carbon footprint.”

Closing the addresses in the ceremony, the Subsecretary of the State of Rio de Janeiro for Health reminded delegates that healthcare is fundamentally human-centred and human-powered: “I want to remember the Covid-19 pandemic, as we all had many losses with the virus, but, like all crises, we also created improvements and the ability to reinvent ourselves.”

The annual World Hospital Congress is hosted in different regions of the world. The IHF will organize the 48th World Hospital Congress in collaboration with Geneva University Hospitals and the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland, taking place from 10–13 November 2025.

Brazil recently became the first country to roll out a national dengue vaccine after a steep rise in cases across the country at the start of 2024.