What COVID-19 reminds us about healthcare system sustainability
Rachel Frizberg
Therapeutic Area Head, Immunology & Infectious Diseases (a.i CVRM) / Established Products, Global Product Strategy, Roche Pharma | Helping to bring innovative science to patients | Inspiring leadership
As the world struggles to battle a global health crisis, it’s heartbreaking to witness the loss of lives and the serious economic ramifications COVID-19 is having the world over. Countries around the world are fighting to slow the progress of the disease so that their health systems can cope.
As this pandemic strains healthcare systems in ways we have never seen before, I cannot help but wonder what we can do to ensure this never happens to us again. Never before has the need to futureproof healthcare and create sustainable health systems, been so clear. While it is imperative for us to fight this crisis in the here and now, it is important not to lose sight of our learnings from this crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic has provided us with new lessons on the power of data and digital tools to protect and improve health and wellbeing. It has highlighted the critical role that technology and healthcare digitisation can play to address major public health challenges.
Countries like South Korea and Taiwan, applauded for their containment of the disease, demonstrated early success by leveraging data modelling and accelerated digital service provision to roll out mass testing and contact tracing. The Hong Kong government, too, leveraged electronic wearables and digital technology for remote monitoring and to provide effective interventions.
To me, health innovations like this are a reminder that we must continue to learn from countries that have used digital and personalised health to manage the impact of the pandemic and improve public health decision-making and healthcare system efficiency.
To address this healthcare crisis, it will require a commitment to solidarity and collaboration from both the public and private sectors -- taking both a short-term and long-term view. While it’s critical that we focus on addressing immediate needs, it’s also important to be looking at ways to improve the sustainability of healthcare systems and their responsiveness. Now is the time to look at our situation with new frames of reference and bring together people and partners in new ways to help create a convergence of system-wide innovation and healthcare treatment breakthroughs.
Rebuilding post-pandemic health systems that are resilient and sustainable in the long-term will deliver more than just preparedness against the next public health crisis – it will help us build health systems that are ready for the future.
#futureproofing #strongertogether
Thank you for these inspiring thoughts. We need to reimagine “access” to include technology and connectivity as a key driver of healthcare: services, education, connections to loved ones and support networks.
CEO at reach52
4 年Thanks for sharing Rachel. All is pragmatic and correct in my view. Feels like the underlying implementation in South East Asia is what we need to think about too. Having the tech is sometimes the easy bit, but progressive regulation, empowerment/task-shifting to frontline health workers, and helping put patients at the centre of data-driven, evidence/value-based, integrated care are all key learnings that must be adopted given the sustainability challenges in many developed health systems... lots of opportunity to leapfrog and implement the new first time around
Disease Area Lead, Oncology at Roche Diagnostics, Asia Pacific
4 年A nice post and a great reminder for us to not forget the learning from this unfortunate event. Increased adoption of technology can potentially enable people to actively participate in healthy living and track conditions earlier - helping in decluttering healthcare facilities. Using the right technologies and clinical interventions at the right time can help build more sustainable health systems. I hope health systems stop looking at solutions in isolation (with an ‘acquisition cost’ mindset) and start considering the overall impact that these solutions could have at a macro level.