High-tech to high-touch: the key takeaways from our Bupa Global Summit in Madrid
In March, we hosted 32 intermediary partners in Madrid for two days of thought-provoking discussion, expert perspectives and shared experience. Our first-ever CPD-accredited Bupa Global Summit, we explored a question that will define global healthcare for the next generation: as technology transforms our industry, how will leaders stay one step ahead?
“One thing is clear: the IPMI market is not standing still. It's evolving, and it's evolving quickly."
- Carl Blake, Chief Risk Officer, Bupa Global
Day 1
High-tech: The forces reshaping global healthcare
Understanding the age of uncertainty
Celebrated geopolitical strategist Tina Fordham opened with a question she gets asked constantly. When are we returning to normal?
Her answer was characteristically direct. When was normal?
The stability we remember was a window, roughly 1990 to 2000, and we have been living beyond it ever since. As Mark Carney, Canada's Prime Minister, put it at Davos this year, we’re in the midst of a rupture, not a transition. Tina’s practical takeaway for leaders is to stop waiting for certainty and start building the capacity to act on informed judgement instead.
"There has never before been a moment when geopolitics has cut across all aspects of business policy."
- Tina Fordham
How Bupa is responding to the new operating reality
Anthony Cabrelli and Chris Carroll were direct about where Bupa Global is heading and what makes it distinctive.
Chris pointed to Bupa’s leadership and commercial structure as what sets us apart from our competitors. It allows us to reinvest profits for the long term, free from the short-term pressures of shareholder returns. Anthony spoke about the advantage of deepening relationships with Bupa's sister businesses, integrating their capability into Bupa Global in ways that others can’t replicate.
On leadership itself, Chris was characteristically candid; he said the ability to work at multiple speeds simultaneously, knowing when to push and when to sit back, is what separates the best leaders in a rapidly shifting environment.
But perhaps the most memorable moment came during the Q&A, when Anthony went around the room calling out individuals he had known for decades: their fathers, their sons, relationships built over careers. It was a powerful representation of the importance of partnership for Bupa Global.
"Where volatility is the new norm, protection has never been more important. And we're seeing from a healthcare perspective, this means moving from episodic to longitudinal care."
- Chris Carroll, CEO, Bupa UK & Bupa Global
"One of the biggest shifts we've seen is in the way customers expect digital support. We're investing in digital, but we also need to invest in that human touch to give our customers the care they need."
- Anthony Cabrelli, Managing Director, Bupa Global
Predictive, personalised, preventive
Bupa's Head of Genomics, Dr Rebecca Rohrer, framed the challenge with a simple but powerful shift in thinking, from "what's wrong with me today?" to "what risks can I prevent tomorrow?"
As populations age, chronic conditions rise and patient expectations evolve, the systems built for a previous era are showing their limits. Genomics, connected data and predictive tools make a different healthcare model possible. One designed around keeping people well, not just treating them when they aren't.
"The aim is to design and deliver a healthcare system that feels very personal in terms of experience, a healthcare system that works really hard to keep people well.”
- Dr Rebecca Rohrer
When innovation meets the commercial reality
Facilitated by Bupa Global’s European General Manager, James O'Reilly, the panel built on Dr Rohrer’s session, bringing together perspectives from digital health, wearables, product strategy and pricing.
They tackled one of IPMI's most pressing challenges: distinguishing innovation that genuinely improves care from those that add costs.
One statistic shocked the room: 90% of employees don't use the health support available to them, and 50% don't even know what they have access to. It reframed the whole discussion. We can build better tools, but it's about ensuring people actually use them.
However, the panel were consistent on how we should think about innovation. Start with the clinical problem and the customer need, not the technology for its own sake.
"It’s about meeting people where they're at, removing barriers to information, and integrating digital tools into care pathways. The information we are feeding them needs to be relatable."
- Paul Smith, Relationship Director, JAAQ
Bupa’s innovation in action
A visit to the Sanitas Innovation Centre gave intermediary partners hands-on experience of the technology shaping the future of healthcare.
From pharmacogenomics testing and AI-driven health management to wearables integration, the future feels closer than expected.
Day 2
High-touch: Where leadership makes the difference
Understanding tomorrow’s healthcare customer
The Futurist and entrepreneur Cecilia MoSze Tham challenged the room to think further ahead than most healthcare conversations dare to go.
She introduced the shift from eCommerce to a Commerce – autonomous, machine-to-machine transactions – and what that means for how services are bought, sold and experienced in the future.
Her provocation on longevity was equally striking. She suggested that death and growing old may increasingly become a choice, with profound implications for how healthcare systems are designed and funded. What landed hardest was her distinction between the legacy consumer, focused on reactive sick care, and the augmented consumer, focused on proactive health management.
For intermediaries, the question she left in the room was clear. Which customer are you building your business around?
"Your employees should not be seen as an expense; they are an asset. Enable them with AI, don't replace them."
- Cecilia MoSze Tham
Putting technology to work for our partners
Heidi Browne's session opened with a moment that nobody in the room will forget quickly; Cecilia Tham on stage, interacting with an AI simulating a conversation with someone living on Mars in 2050.
They debated the future of healthcare and whether dust lung would be the defining health challenge of the next century.
It was provocative by design. But the point was serious. The future arrives faster than we expect, and the organisations that thrive are those building for it now.
Heidi made it clear that digital access is no longer a differentiator, it’s a baseline expectation. And with less than 3% retention across health apps, having a digital offer is not the same as having one that people actually use.
The investment Bupa Global is making is deliberate: AI-driven tools, richer partner data and a new B2B portal built around what intermediaries actually need – not what's technically impressive.
"Tech on its own doesn't create value; it's about how we use it."
- Heidi Browne, Transformation Director, Bupa Global
Maximising the impact of human leadership
Few people understand high performance under pressure better than Sean Fitzpatrick.
As a former All Blacks Captain, he led one of the most famous teams in world sport, and the lessons he drew from that experience landed squarely in the room.
His final session of the Summit explored how elite performance comes down to culture, accountability and the ability to make clear decisions when the pressure is highest. For IPMI leaders navigating an increasingly complex and data-driven world, the parallel was hard to ignore.
He closed by getting every person in the room on their feet to perform the Haka together. It was the kind of moment that no one in the room will ever forget, and it was a fitting end to two days that were all about what humans can achieve when they're at their best.
"Winning takes preparation, and it takes sacrifice. It's about that winning mindset - go into every situation expecting to win."
- Sean Fitzpatrick, former All Blacks captain
High-tech and high-touch is where the real power lies
Our first Bupa Global Summit demonstrated that technology raises the ceiling for what's possible in global healthcare, but it’s human leadership and partnership that will decide how high we actually go.
That powerful idea ran through every session, every conversation, and every debate over two days in Madrid. We hope everyone who attended leaves with clearer thinking, stronger connections and a real sense of the opportunity that lies ahead.
Thirty-two partners, two days, one direction of travel. We look forward to continuing the conversation.
"Our Bupa Global Summit has been all about the exchange of ideas and insights and sharing knowledge to prepare for the future."
- Carl Blake, Partnerships Development Director, Bupa Global
For further information, speak to your Bupa representative.