Topic themes & session titles:

Regulatory turbulence & policy uncertainty

1. Navigating the NHI crosswinds: preparing for policy shifts while ensuring stability
2. Regulation in flux: how schemes and administrators can thrive amid legal and political uncertainty
3. 25 years of policy evolution: lessons for the next era of population health risk mitigation
4. From courtrooms to boardrooms: managing compliance risk in an unpredictable landscape

Economic pressures, affordability & sustainability

1. The affordability crisis: re-crafting benefit design for a stressed consumer
2. Sustainability under strain: building resilient schemes in a low-growth, high-cost economy
3. Funding models for the next decade: balancing member protection and financial viability
4. Healthcare in an inflationary world: global shocks, local solutions
5. Innovate/re-engineer business models for optimal healthcare outcomes and efficiency

AI digital health & technological disruption

1. AI as a game changer in chronic disease management: from prediction to prevention
2. AI headwinds or tailwinds? Harnessing technology to strengthen funding and care delivery
3. Barriers to technology adoption by providers and patients
4. From disruption to deployment: practical ai use cases for administrators & schemes
5. Cybersecurity in the unknown: protecting member data in a high-risk digital era
6. Digital trust: ensuring equity, ethics, and governance in an ai-led health system
7. Informed decision making: investing in real world data collection & research

• Ethical and regulatory considerations in AI
• AI-driven decision support
• Data governance and digital health innovation
• AI impact on healthcare financing and delivery

Climate change, sustainability & future health systems

1. Climate shock & health shock: preparing southern africa’s health systems for a warmer world
2. Green healthcare financing: how funders can support environmentally sustainable healthcare
3. Climate-driven diseases: funding models for emerging health burdens

Integrated care, access & equity

1. Closing the access gap: innovative approaches to affordable universal care
2. Beyond the hospital: strengthening primary care, community care and virtual care pathways
3. Equity as a strategic imperative: transforming healthcare funding for inclusive growth
4. Unpacking the value-add of different benefit design models
5. Mitigating the non-communicable disease burden explosion

Leadership, governance & industry collaboration

1. Steering through the storm: leadership skills for a volatile health environment
2. The power of collective action: 25 years of BHF & the future of regional collaboration
3. Rethinking governance: building trust and transparency in a polarised health sector
4. Co-creating the future: public–private partnerships that deliver measurable impact

Member-centricity & consumer behaviour

1. Strategic stakeholder management in healthcare funding: building trust, alignment, and system sustainability
2. Provider-payer-patient information gaps
3. Transparency in healthcare pricing and benefits
4. The new health consumer: expectations, behaviours & trust in a post-pandemic world: rebuilding trust in healthcare funding
5. Member outcomes as a compass: designing benefits for real-world impact
6. Reducing information asymmetry in healthcare funding: transparency, trust, and better decision-making
7. Driving preventive health adoption in healthcare funding: incentives, behaviour change, and system design

Geopolitics, global shocks & health security

1. Pandemic preparedness in the unknown: how southern Africa can build health systems that withstand global shockwaves
2. From fragile to resilient: reassessing reliance on global supply chains for medicines and devices across southern Africa
3. Healthcare and geopolitics: how global power shifts are redefining investment and influence in southern Africa’s health sector
4. Cross-border outbreak response: reimagining cross-border coordination for future outbreaks.

Abstracts may be submitted for journal publication, oral presentation or both. All submissions will undergo a peer review process, and only selected abstracts will be accepted.

Length of abstract: The abstract submission must not exceed 250 words.

Submission datelines:

1. Abstract submissions no later than 10 April 2026.
2. The BHF Selection Committee will review all submissions and notify applicants of the outcome of their abstract selection by 25 April 2026.
3. First draft paper submission is no later than 08 May 2026.
4. Final draft paper submission (following peer review) by 29 May 2026.

Details of the peer review process and reviewer allocation will be communicated to selected authors.

• The final paper should be written in a manner that is accessible to a multidisciplinary audience while maintaining strong scientific rigor and evidence-based analysis.

Terms and conditions for abstracts selected for oral presentation at the BHF Conference

• Abstracts accepted for oral presentation at the BHF Conference are subject to the following terms and conditions:
• Acceptance for oral presentation is conditional upon registration and full payment of the conference registration fee. Presenters must register, pay, and attend the conference to present their work.
• The BHF Selection Committee reserves the right to withdraw an accepted presentation if registration and payment requirements are not fulfilled within the specified timeframe.
• Where a co-author presents on behalf of the primary author, the presenting co-author must also register and pay the conference registration fee.
• Presenters are responsible for all costs associated with participation, including conference registration fees, travel, accommodation, and any related expenses.
• Accepted presenters must comply with all presentation guidelines, timelines, and submission requirements communicated by the conference organisers.
• The BHF Selection Committee reserves the right to make final decisions regarding abstract acceptance, presentation format, and programme placement.