RESILIENCE OF HEALTH SYSTEMS: TAKEAWAYS FROM COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic had brought tremendous losses – human, social and economic. However, it has also offered many valuable insights and lessons into how healthcare systems can be made much more resilient and how medical innovations can be achieved faster, affordable, and more efficient. The crucial key words to reach these goals are research, collaboration, and country-specific solutions.
BRINGING TOGETHER IDEAS AND EXPERIENCE
“The beauty of COVID” was that the establishment of a new type of platform exchange between different national and international actors has led to a better use of existing human capital. In particular, small and vulnerable countries like Bhutan have profited from this trend. Unconventional and flexible approaches have proven to be suitable to enable creative solutions such as fast supply chain management for the distribution of vaccines that have made the difference in fighting the pandemic. The power of collaboration with handshake agreements has also shown to be a goal-oriented motto for companies surprised by the events like BioNTech. Rapid vaccine production was primarily possible with a mindset to think from the end.
HEALTH IS DIFFERENT
Another success factor is the localization of production so that supply can be local. After all, health is different from other services and goods. If health ist not given, everything stands still. Mega-companies are not necessarily required to be successful; it is more decisive to have the right size for the right country. This philosophy must be accompanied by technologically sophisticated state-of-the-art national surveillance and alarm systems to be able to respond as quickly as possible. Given the large demographic dividend in Asia-Pacific, as in India with a population over 1 billion, there is still a lot of room for strong medical alliances with German companies.
” What counts above all is the ability to create change with the aim of providing a win-win situation for everyone involved.
Shobana Kamineni
Executive Vice Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals
” The proper use of technology and bringing together the right private and public actors can make all the difference for small countries like Bhutan.
Dasho Dechen Wangmo
Health Minister, Bhutan