5 ways to strengthen our health systems for the future

In September 2019, a group of experts working together as part of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) published a report stating that the world was grossly unprepared for a lethal respiratory pathogen pandemic like what the world faced in 1918 with influenza. The cost to the modern economy of such a pandemic, they reported, could be up to $3 trillion.

The GPMB’s estimates, it turned out, were far too conservative.

The IMF in October 2021 projected that the cost to the global economy of the COVID-19 pandemic, until 2024, would be around $12.5 trillion. The Economist described the economic impact as “incalculable”. The toll on human health is greater still.

Health systems face enormous challenges as they seek to recover from the pandemic. Efforts to eliminate HIV, TB, malaria and hepatitis have been set back decades, while 23 million children missed basic vaccines in 2020, an increase of nearly 20% on the previous year. Waiting times for diagnosis and treatment of cancer have spiralled in many parts of the world. Further out, an aging global population means that by 2050, 1 in 6 individuals will be over the age of 65, making a resilient health system all the more critical.

How can we possibly hope to deal with any one of these seemingly intractable challenges – let alone find solutions to them all?

The World Economic Forum’s Health and Healthcare Platform works with stakeholders from private industry, governments, academics, civil society and patient advocates on a wide range of health issues from hepatitis and tuberculosis, to cancer and diabetes, and a number of cross-cutting initiatives. Across the breadth of these issues, we see five common themes that we believe have the potential to transform how healthcare works in the future, and ensure for stronger, more resilient health systems globally.

Late last year, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), said: “The time has come for a new narrative that sees health not as a cost, but an investment that is the foundation of productive, resilient and stable economies.”

That is exactly what we have seen from our partners. On an unprecedented scale, companies want to be engaged in matters relating to health. From the C-suite down deep into supply chains, there is a recognition that health underpins wealth – and nearly everyone is keen to play a part. We’ve seen new partnerships brokered outside of the health and healthcare industry, such as DP World – a leader in global end-to-end supply chain logistics headquartered in the United Arab Emirates – partnering with UNICEF to support the global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and critical immunization supplies in low- and lower-middle-income countries.

The pandemic saw health services delivered in the community in an unprecedented way through the deployment of mobile testing units and pop-up vaccination centres. In the US, the YMCA partnered with CVS Health to establish vaccination sites in communities in six cities without pharmacy access to help ensure more equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. This trend will continue, making access to care easier, more local (including in workplaces) and more affordable, in addition to freeing up critical resources within health systems to manage emergent care.

COVID-19 exacerbated the global shortage of healthcare workers and the challenges they face. In the US alone, nearly 1 in 5 healthcare workers quit their jobs during the pandemic. With women representing 70% of the healthcare workforce, gender-based policies are needed to protect and support them. We must replace aging healthcare workforces, and care for our healthcare professionals traumatized by the pandemic. Healthcare should be reimagined based on the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic – and healthcare workers should be leading health policy work.

A range of new technologies are starting to reach mainstream use, promising to make care more equitable and cheaper. From a collaboration by Pfizer, BioNTech and Zipline for long-range drone delivery of COVID-19 vaccines requiring ultra-cold-chain in Ghana, to the use of AI to diagnose lung conditions via X-ray, to the breakthrough use of mRNA technology and the promise it represents in fighting other challenging health conditions, exciting novel technologies can make care cheaper, more effective and more equitable.

Before the pandemic, many who worked in diagnostics felt that their contributions were undervalued. Now, everyone understands the importance of testing, with “PCRs”, “lateral flows”, “antigens” and “antibodies” becoming part of daily language. At the outset of the pandemic, only two countries in Africa could screen for coronaviruses; now, nearly all can. This carries hope for finding the “missing millions” in HIV, TB, malaria and hepatitis. There’s a new focus on genomic sequencing and the importance of sentinel surveillance. The pandemic has also shown that health data can be collected in real-time from all over the world. With more, earlier testing, we can catch health conditions sooner and get better health outcomes.

COVID-19 has generated an opportunity for stakeholders – from the public and private sectors, to governments, to communities – to reimagine collaboration in the pursuit of more sustainable, equitable and resilient health systems. Through more strategic use of data and technology, along with the co-creation of health services with communities and new entrants in the health and healthcare field, we have the opportunity to enable our health and healthcare systems to learn, adapt and prepare for a future that is sure to come.