The Transformative Power of Value-Based Care in Brain Health
As brain health emerges as a central pillar of the brain economy, reimagining our existing health systems becomes essential, with value-based care playing a pivotal role in its transformation.
Behavioral health systems around the world are under growing strain. Demand for care continues to rise, yet many families still struggle to access timely, equitable and precise access to care. Clinicians are overstretched, workforces are under pressure and systems designed decades ago are struggling to respond to the complexity of today’s needs.
The scale of the challenge is significant. By 2030, poor brain health is projected to cost the global economy US$16 trillion each year. Yet improving brain health could also unlock more than 130 million additional years of healthy life globally. These numbers reinforce an important truth: brain health underpins productivity, well-being, and the resilience of modern societies.
A Global Call to Strengthen Brain Health Systems
These challenges are not isolated to any one country, and they cannot be solved through a single entity. Catalight, one of the largest nonprofit behavioral health networks in the United States, is here to break down barriers and biases within health systems through timely, equitable, and precise access to care. It understands that when it comes to autism and other intellectual and developmental disability care, one size does not fit all—it is radically transforming the autism and IDD journey by prioritizing well-being through value-based care. Solutions must reflect the social, cultural, and economic realities in which care is delivered while ensuring families’ personalized outcome goals are met. Its value-based principles transcend the individual, caregivers, and organizations, with the power to impact the wellbeing of our cities, states, and nations.
Growing awareness of these pressures is changing how behavioral and brain health are understood. As global leaders gather at the World Economic Forum to discuss productivity, inclusion and long-term growth, attention is turning to how stronger brain health systems support workforce participation, social stability and economic resilience. Increasingly, this conversation is framed around the idea of the “brain economy” – an emerging global focus on how brain health, cognitive skills and emotional well-being shape economic productivity, innovation and societal well-being.
Taking part in the World Economic Forum for the first time, Catalight has joined the conversation with other leading organizations representing health systems, academia, government and corporations, aiming to illuminate the urgent need to address brain health challenges and reimagine our current frameworks for healthcare delivery. Value-based care is critical in the transformation of brain health and serves as a core element in supporting a sustainable global brain economy. Their call to action to all global leaders is clear: Now is the time to unite and prioritize the greatest asset that any nation possesses—its people. As Harris A. Eyre, Executive Director of the Global Brain Economy Initiative, emphasises, “Across the world, whether you are a political, business or family leader, everyone needs a brain economy plan. So everyone should get their thinking hats on and consider what their personal or professional brain economy plan might be.”
Let us commit to developing and implementing value-based brain economy strategies that ensure timely, equitable, and precise access to care.
Elevating Brain Health and Rethinking Care Systems
Those conversations continued throughout Davos. Across panels and private discussions, leaders from government, healthcare, research and business repeatedly returned to a common theme, that the future of economies is deeply connected to the health of our brains.
As Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, explains, the issue reflects a broader historical gap in global health priorities. “It’s very encouraging to see how brain health is being elevated into the global health agenda,” he says. Yet despite the brain being “the source of our thoughts, our memories, our emotions and our relationships,” brain health has long been overlooked.
Addressing this challenge requires a shift in how care is designed and delivered. For Patrick J. Kennedy, Founder, The Kennedy Forum, the argument is both moral and economic. “We have to do this right, not just because it’s morally right, but because it’s right financially,” he explains, highlighting the growing recognition of mental health as a form of “brain capital” that supports the well-being and productivity of societies.
This shift also means focusing on outcomes rather than volume. As Bechara Choucair, Executive Vice President and Chief Health Officer, Kaiser Permanente, touches upon, effective systems must ensure that “members and patients are getting the right care at the right time and the right place, every single time.” By prioritising prevention, quality and measurable results, value-based models offer a path towards more sustainable and accessible behavioural healthcare.
Building Brain Health Systems Through Partnership
Strengthening behavioural healthcare systems requires collaboration across sectors and geographies. Needs, resources and care delivery structures vary widely across countries, meaning solutions must be locally grounded and built through partnership rather than imposed through uniform models.
Mikele Epperly, Global Integrated Program Leader, Neuroscience, Roche, acknowledges that true progress depends on ensuring that innovation reaches beyond the wealthiest health systems. “If the model only succeeds in the wealthiest countries, those with the most resources, then we’re not creating value. We are selecting for it.” The economic case is also clear. Health improvements have driven a significant share of economic growth, with research suggesting that for every dollar invested in health, societies can see two to four dollars returned through greater productivity.
But this kind of systemic progress depends on broad cooperation. Frédéric Destrebecq, Executive Director, European Brain Council, puts it very simply, “it takes a village to educate a child, but it takes the world to cure the brain.” Partnerships between governments, healthcare providers, universities, NGOs and community organisations are therefore essential to building the skills, trust and capacity needed to strengthen brain health systems globally.
Investing in the Future of Brain Health
Brain health is increasingly recognised as a foundation for economic resilience, equity and sustainable growth. Policymakers and health leaders now speak of the emerging “brain economy”, where investments in cognitive and emotional well-being translate into stronger productivity, innovation and societal stability.
In conclusion, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus describes the ambition as both simple and profound: “to enable every person in every country to achieve their full cognitive, emotional and social potential.” Achieving this would not only reduce suffering and disability, but also strengthen societies, accelerate innovation and unlock the “brain capital” needed in a rapidly changing world. He states, “together, across sectors, disciplines and geographies, we can transform the future of brain health for all people everywhere.”
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