2026 Word of the Year: Wisdom

Two decades ago, I explained to my father that the burden of disease measures the total impact of illnesses, injuries, and disabilities on a population. It quantifies the gap between ideal health—long life in full health—and current reality by combining premature death with years lived with illness or disability.

My father was born in the colonized French Congo, where he survived systemized, dehumanizing exploitation—violence that France is only beginning to publicly reckon with today.
His response to this technical definition was simple and devastating: What is the point of a long life in full health if that life is lived in a dehumanizing environment?

What I learned from that conversation is that in the West, health is often defined from a privileged position—one where having a “normal life” was, until very recently, assumed rather than questioned. And as my father taught me, “If you don’t question your reality, reality will—eventually.”

So my resolution for 2026 is to continue building a compassionate ecosystem that fosters a hashtag#PatientLedScientificRevolution.

Because tomorrow’s science will be built by today’s patients’ wisdom.

Want to join the movement?
Visit our thought-provoking series: Summer of Unlearning: A Series to Reimagining Healthcare