Health systems worldwide spend billions treating diseases that could have been prevented for a fraction of the cost, yet prevention remains chronically underfunded, politically marginalized, and structurally squeezed out by the urgent demands of acute care.
In the 2026 OHE Annual Lecture, Dr Eduardo Banzon, Director of the Health Practice at the Asian Development Bank and one of the world’s foremost voices on health financing and universal health coverage, confronts this paradox head on.
Drawing on his experience across Asia-Pacific and beyond, Dr Banzon will bring a uniquely global perspective to bear on one of health economics’ most enduring questions: why do we consistently underinvest in prevention, and how do we build the financing architecture to change that?
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About our keynote speaker
Dr Eduardo Banzon
Director of ADB’s Health Practice Team, Human and Social Development Office, Sectors Department
Eduardo, fondly known as “Doc Dodo,” spearheads ADB’s health sector agenda, including advocacy for universal health coverage. During more than 3 decades, he has held senior positions across national and international institutions.
In 2011, he served as Chief Executive Officer of PhilHealth, the Philippines’ national health insurer. Before joining ADB in 2014, he was Regional Adviser for Health Economics and Health Financing at the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office. He also worked for WHO in Bangladesh and as a health specialist for the World Bank’s East Asia Pacific operations. Eduardo also had stints at the Philippines’ Department of Health and Bureau of Food and Drugs, as well as writing a weekly column in the Business Mirror newspaper and serving as faculty at University of the Philippines College of Medicine, the Ateneo de Manila University Graduate School of Business, and the Asian Institute of Management. Since November 2021, he has been an honorary affiliate at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore. He holds a BSc in biology and a Doctor of Medicine from the University of the Philippines, and an MSc jointly awarded by the London School of Economics and Political Science and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
OHE Annual Lecture Series
As part of our charitable purpose to educate and inform health policymakers, the Annual Lecture is our opportunity to highlight urgent and important issues facing health systems around the world and to raise awareness of research and evidence that can contribute to addressing these challenges. Throughout our long history we’ve had the privilege of hosting some of the greatest thinkers in the economics of health and health care.