Background <p>The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored limitations in current methods for assessing country-level health emergency preparedness, which often overlook essential factors like ongoing epidemics, natural disasters, conflicts, or community trust. Addressing this, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed the Dynamic Preparedness Metric (DPM), a composite measure that assesses epidemic risk by accounting for hazards, vulnerabilities, and capacity, offering insights for improving country-level health emergency preparedness.</p> Methods <p>Our analysis tested the DPM’s effectiveness in supporting preparedness at global and WHO-regional levels, focusing on five acute syndromes. The DPM regional average is calculated from individual country scores, and a one-year trend analysis (from the 1st to 4th quarters of 2023) was conducted globally for all syndromes, as well as regionally for diarrhoeal syndrome. Additionally, we back-calculated DPM scores from 2018 to 2021 to explore the metric’s responsiveness to the COVID-19 pandemic. Underlying standardized indicators were also analysed to pinpoint primary risk factors.</p> Results <p>Initial findings highlight substantial variation across WHO regions. Short-term analyses revealed temporal trends in regional risk, while medium-term analyses showed decreased scores and expanded capacity gaps during COVID-19. Primary risk factors identified include health system deficiencies, urbanization, and the prevalence of epidemic-prone diseases, with considerable regional differences.</p> Conclusions <p>These results emphasize the importance of a dynamic, risk-informed approach to health emergency preparedness assessment. Tracking shifts in hazards, vulnerabilities, and capacities enables refinement of health emergency preparedness and readiness planning, fostering more responsive and effective health security strategies.</p>