How can we safeguard and improve the future of global health?
Health systems must become more resilient to future shocks. Image: REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki.
- The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the underlying fragilities of healthcare systems around the world.
- The Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience – a joint initiative between the World Economic Forum, the London School of Economics and AstraZeneca – is hosting its inaugural virtual summit.
- Register for the summit and hear from global experts in health policy as they discuss and debate the future of healthcare.
It is clear that COVID-19 has tested global health systems well beyond their limits. The pandemic has had a catastrophic impact on people, society, and economies globally. However, it also presents an opportunity, with health system recovery and improvement now a priority in countries worldwide. There is an unprecedented public desire (and hopefully) the political will to address global health issues, ensuring that as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, health systems are built that are resilient to future shocks and sustainable in the long term.
The Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience (PHSSR) – a collaboration between the London School of Economics the World Economic Forum and AstraZeneca – aims to make a significant and lasting contribution to global health, particularly in terms of:
- Health system resilience: The ability of health systems to prevent, mitigate, overcome and rebound stronger from crises – both chronic and acute. This includes the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters and the climate emergency.
- Health system sustainability: The ability of health systems to continually deliver their key functions of stewardship, generating resources and providing services, learning and improving in their ability to do so, in pursuit of improved population health.
Since July 2020, eminent researchers in eight countries have been conducting reviews of health system sustainability and resilience – identifying solutions with the greatest potential to deliver the change required to transform the delivery of health and care.
The PHSSR is now bringing together these researchers, together with leading global experts from academia, business and the public sector to create a platform to disseminate these breakthrough insights and enable health systems to act upon them.
Across five days, from 15-19 March, the inaugural PHSSR Virtual Global Summit will present and discuss how we can build healthcare systems grounded in resilient and sustainable principles to safeguard and improve the future of global health:
- Local experts from England, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain, and Vietnam will present their assessments of the key opportunities to improve national health systems, with speakers from leading think tanks, Ministries of Health, and professional associations.
- Vivekanand Jha, President of the International Society of Nephrology; Fausto Pinto, President of the World Heart Federation; and David Baldwin, UK Clinical Expert Group for Lung Cancer and Mesothelioma, will discuss a stronger focus on prevention, earlier detection, and treatment
- Harpreet Sood, University College London Hospitals; Matthew Gould, Chief Executive of NHSX; and Sally Okun, an FDA Regulatory Expert, will highlight the opportunities of digitising health, and the challenges and opportunities to ensuring digital solutions are embraced by health systems in the future.
- Francesca Colombo, OECD; Tobias Silberzhan, McKinsey; Hugh Montgomery, University College London; and Bengt Jönsson, Stockholm School of Economics, will debate the economic, social, and political costs of disease and the value of investing in health.
- Andy Menzies-Gow, Royal Brompton Hospital; John Hurst, University College London; Christine Jenkins, University of New South Wales, Sydney; and Tonya Winders, Global Asthma and Airways Patient Platform, will outline the opportunities to transform respiratory disease care.
- Josep Figueras, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and George Freeman MP, will discuss the role of collaboration to build healthier economies, environments, and health systems in the future.
We look forward to you joining the summit alongside our distinguished panel of more than 30 experts from ministries of health and other public bodies, OECD, WHO, World Heart Federation, International Society of Nephrology, and many more.
Find out more about the PHSSR programme and register for the virtual summit.
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