Utrecht, 13 April 2026 - The future of healthcare requires a global perspective and the courage to let go of familiar solutions. These, and other thought-provoking perspectives, are at the centre of the 'Healthcare&' trade fairs 2026, which will take place from 14 to 16 April 2026 at Royal Dutch Jaarbeurs. Healthcare professionals, policymakers and innovators from home and abroad will come together to look beyond familiar solutions. With international speakers, a sold-out exhibition floor and a substantive programme fully compiled by an independent programme committee, the trade fairs emphatically position themselves as a guiding platform for tomorrow's healthcare.
Leading speakers such as digital anthropologist Payal Arora and nurse and care innovator Teun Toebes challenge the audience to let go of existing assumptions. Not Europe, but rather the countries below the equator (the Global South) and Asia are put forward as regions where valuable insights about inclusive care, technology and living together are emerging.
Learning from scarcity and diversity
According to Payal Arora, the idea that healthcare is mainly organised locally is outdated. Data, technology and patients move globally while healthcare technology is still too often based on a limited, western user base. "Most clinical studies are based on data from a small, homogeneous group: western, highly educated and affluent," argues Arora. "When we reproduce that bias in AI and digital healthcare systems, we build solutions that won't work for most of the world." Her message is clear: anyone serious about shaping the future of healthcare needs to think beyond European frameworks and learn from contexts where scarcity, scale and diversity are everyday realities.
China as a mirror for elderly care
Where Arora turns her gaze to the global south, Teun Toebes travels to China. Together with filmmaker Jonathan de Jong, he examines there how societies deal with ageing and dementia. His central insight: care is, at its core, not an organisational but a social question. "In the Netherlands, we steer strongly towards safety and control. But if you want to exclude every risk, you also exclude life itself," says Toebes. In Chinese communities, he sees how the elderly remain emphatically part of daily life. That approach, he says, offers valuable lessons for Western healthcare systems struggling with an ageing population, staff shortages and increasing demand for care.
The entire healthcare market under one roof
These substantive issues come together at the 'Zorg&' trade fairs 2026 where the entire healthcare market is represented. The fairs comprise Zorg & ict, Zorg & hr, Zorg & facility and Zorg & food and bring together administrators, healthcare professionals, IT suppliers, policymakers and educational institutions. Interest is high: the Zorg & ICT trade fair is sold out. The number of participants has grown considerably and the trade fair is experiencing its second edition in this broad, integrated format. The combination of technology, people, organisation and food makes it possible to approach healthcare issues from multiple angles.
New solutions and other perspectives
What unites Arora and Toebes is their criticism of healthcare systems that are too much geared towards efficiency and rules and too little towards people's living environment. This tension is an important thread in the programme. Audrey Wilschut, Cluster Manager Care & Education at Jaarbeurs: "The programme is entirely compiled by a substantive programme committee from the care field itself. As a result, the focus is not on systems, but on concrete questions from practice and the person behind the care question." According to Wilschut, this edition shows how important it is for different disciplines to meet: "It is precisely by bringing together Care & ict, Care & hr, Care & facility and Care & food that space is created for new solutions and other perspectives."
Inspiration for tomorrow's care
With international speakers, a sold-out exhibition floor and a broadly composed programme, the 'Zorg&' trade fairs 2026 invite visitors to look at care radically differently. Not as an isolated European system, but as part of a global movement in which collaboration, inclusiveness and people-centred thinking are becoming increasingly important.
