September 3, 2025 — Across the United States, healthcare facilities managers face similar challenges in shaping healthier, more operationally efficient, and more sustainable facilities. In October 2026, these leaders have a unique opportunity to meet with their peers from around the world to learn how leaders in other countries address these issues. The International Federation of Healthcare Engineering (IFHE) 29th World Congress and the Healthcare Design (HCD) Conference + Expo will co-locate in New Orleans October 17-20, 2026, for one of the most dynamic healthcare events ever held in the United States.
Each year, HCD brings together thousands of industry leaders from around the United States to explore the latest research, trends, and strategies shaping the design and management of healthcare real estate. IFHE delivers the same powerful experience on a global scale. The nonprofit organization facilitates the worldwide exchange of information in healthcare facility design, construction, engineering, commissioning, maintenance, and real estate management. Its members include national health facility organizations from more than 35 countries around the world. The Association of Medical Facility Professionals, the U.S. representative to IFHE, is working in partnership with EmeraldX to host the 2026 World Congress.
Healthcare senior strategist Mike Wood has regularly attended the IFHE World Congress for the last decade. “At my first IFHE event, it struck me how every attendee, no matter what country they came from, was grappling with the same issues that we face in the United States. Every time I go, I find the same commonalities.”
The value of IFHE is in exploring how other leaders are solving these challenges, says Walt Vernon, CEO of the engineering consulting firm Mazzetti and IFHE president-elect.
For example, Vernon notes, “In much of the rest of the world, they are much more directly impacted by the changing climate, so the need for resilience and to reduce buildings’ impact on the environment are higher.” Vernon has observed that this heightened need, in combination with the more limited resources available in many developing IFHE member nations, can prompt creative innovation. “These solutions can be instructive to us in the United States. IFHE introduces these opportunities for learning.”
The advantage, Wood adds, is that IFHE’s network, spanning more than 10,000 practitioners, provides U.S.-based facilities managers a wealth of insight into innovative practices in design, construction, and operational approaches.
“You get a depth of knowledge that you just don’t have access to here in the United States,” Wood adds. “Here, we all deal with the same major architectural firms and general contractors. We all seem to progress through contract and practice methodologies at about the same pace and level. To talk with somebody from Brazil or Japan or South Africa who says ‘we found that didn’t work, so we changed it,’ is incredibly eye-opening.”
This insight will be expanded at the first-of-its-kind co-located conference in New Orleans. IFHE-led educational sessions and networking opportunities will offer opportunity for U.S.-based and international healthcare experts to connect.
To learn more, the AMFP site will offer updates and developments here: IFHE 2026 World Congress.
