Meet the Experts Behind Our World’s Best Hospitals Ranking – ryan

Around the world, health care systems are working to navigate the most pressing global health challenges with cutting-edge technology and research. But at the world’s top hospitals, leaders know the key to delivering the best care is focusing on patient needs.

Earlier this year, Newsweek partnered with Statista to publish its 2025 ranking of the World’s Best Hospitals. This list includes more than 2,400 hospitals from 30 countries across five continents. Each country was chosen based on several factors, including standard of living and life expectancy, population size, number of hospitals and data availability.

Hospitals are scored based on peer recommendations from a survey of more than 85,000 medical experts, patient experience data, hospital quality metrics and Statista’s Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROM) survey, which assesses how hospitals implement patient feedback on their quality of care.

In addition to individual country lists, the Global Top 250 list compiles hospitals from all 30 countries that performed in the top 20 percent in quality metrics and/or patient satisfaction in their respective country. According to Statista, the hospitals on the Global Top 250 List are “the very best hospitals in each country and, therefore, around the world.”

Dr. Eyal Zimlichman is the chief transformation and innovation officer at Sheba Medical Center, the top hospital in Israel, according to Newsweek’s ranking. He told Newsweek that value-based health care centered on the patients’ needs is “the guiding principle for progressive hospitals and health systems” around the world.

“This involves a continuous and determined effort to improve outcomes that truly matter to patients,” he said. “Hospitals making significant strides in this area are already witnessing enhanced patient outcomes and deserve recognition for their efforts. However, there is still a long way to go, which necessitates a cultural shift and substantial financial investments in IT platforms to support these initiatives.”

Zimlichman is one of the six members of the board of international medical experts responsible for developing the methodology behind Newsweek‘s World’s Best Hospitals ranking.

The other board members include Dr. David Bates, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School; Dr. Gary Kaplan, CEO Emeritus of Virginia Mason Franciscan Health; Dr. Christoph Meier, director of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Zurich in Switzerland; Dr. Gregory Katz, chair of innovation management and value in health at the University of Paris Medical School in France; and Dr. Jens Deerberg-Wittram, senior fellow at the Center for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research CPCOR in Germany.

Newsweek recently asked the board members about the process of building the World’s Best Hospitals methodology. Respondents sent their answers over email, which have been compiled in this story. The answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Newsweek: What factors determined whether a new consideration would be added to the World’s Best Hospitals methodology? What questions do board members consider when discussing possible changes to the methodology?

Katz: As a board member, I’m trying to focus on two dimensions: Are the indicators relevant for patients, especially regarding the treatment outcomes? (And) can the indicators be measured with reliability and reproducibility?

Zimlichman: Incorporating new measures into the ranking score is a complex process that involves several key considerations. First and foremost, we aim to prioritize measures that truly matter to patients, ensuring they reflect a broad definition of quality in medical care. Patient needs are always at the forefront when shaping the scoring criteria. Second, the data must be accessible across various countries and publicly reported, allowing the Statista team to either obtain it directly or collect it from hospitals. Third, it is essential to minimize opportunities for gaming the system while ensuring the measure’s reliability. Measuring across countries presents significant challenges, which underscores the uniqueness of the Newsweek World’s Best Hospitals initiative.

Kaplan: We also attempt with all aspects of our metrics to be evidenced based. The medical literature is frequently reviewed and there is regular scanning by board members of the relevant literature. In addition, evidence (regarding) clinical outcomes and patient experience are of critical importance. The ability to reliably measure new evaluative metrics and their reproducibility across disciplines, care settings and geography is very important.

Bates: We consider what is known about the area, and what the current evidence is about various topics. We try to focus on things which will make care higher quality, safer, and more efficient. We want to encourage new innovations, but at the same time not get ahead of the evidence.

How do board members stay informed on the priorities of health systems around the world?

Meier: (We rely on) international meetings, personal contacts, academic literature (and) newspapers.

Kaplan: Continually scanning the medical literature is very important. Understanding health system priorities also goes beyond the medical literature. Professional societies, meetings, the lay press and websites are all valuable sources of information. In addition, over long careers, most of us have diverse relationships with leaders and colleagues around the world.

Zimlichman: Board members are deeply engaged in efforts to develop, evaluate, enhance, or conduct research on health systems, whether in operational, academic, or advisory roles. Some play a pivotal role in shaping best practices and establishing global standards for hospitals. For instance, I serve as the co-chairman of the Future of Health (FOH) global leadership initiative—a collective of health leaders from across the globe working collaboratively to set a vision for the future and chart a path forward. Initiatives like FOH play a crucial role in influencing priorities that impact the Best Hospital’s ranking.

Statista found a shift toward value-based care among top hospitals. This is reflected in the methodology, with greater weight placed on the PROMs implementation survey and quality metrics. What does value-based, patient-centered care look like at successful hospitals? How does a hospital’s culture impact care? And what other trends are you seeing across international health care systems?

Zimlichman: Through the Newsweek ranking, our aim is to set a benchmark for hospitals to excel in advancing value-based health. Leading hospitals in this domain have developed comprehensive measurement systems to collect and report patient outcomes, with the goal of continuously improving these outcomes and empowering patients to take an active role in their health decisions. The most advanced systems now openly share aggregated data on their websites, enabling patients to use this information as a decision-making tool.

Kaplan: The trend towards value-based care is driven by the realization that care is not nearly as good and highly reliable as we expect and our patients deserve. In addition, the cost of care in most countries, regardless of payment system, is rising fast and impacting national budgets and other aspects of society. Designing care around our patients and not around our providers and hospitals has never been more important.

Bates: Today, many of the most exciting (advancements) relate to artificial intelligence. AI is especially good today at evaluating images and is being used increasingly in radiology and pathology, for example. It can read some exams like mammograms very rapidly, with very high accuracy. It is also displaying great performance in “ambient documentation,” which involves having the computer listen to an encounter and then produce a note which the physician or nurse can edit. This both speeds up the process and reduces clinician burnout.