Editorial in HPI: Trust is a verb – how to reimagine confidence in health systems

Based on my keynote address at the 2025 Annual meeting of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences , this editorial explores how trust in health systems is no longer a static bank account institutions can just withdraw from—it is an active verb. We unpack how patient expectations have fundamentally changed due to the prioritization of lived experience , the rapid and often chaotic speed of online health conversations , and the rise of personalized digital feeds that reshape what feels credible. To rebuild confidence, we argue that public health systems need to actively practice trustworthiness , renew their social contracts across different generations , and rebuild the visible structures that connect scientific evidence to everyday public dialogue.