A lot of people across the globe are wondering: With all these massive technological advancements, WHY IS THE WORLD NOT PREPARED FOR HANDLING PANDEMICS? How can a flu disrupt entire world and global economy? Well, the answer really lies in how our health systems are setup! (1/13)
Essentially, a health system comprises 3 components:
a. Patients
b. Healthcare Professionals
c. Institutions (Hospitals, Government, Manufacturers)
Generally, in case of regular diseases (eg: Cancer, Hepatitis) 1 or 2 components are pressurized. In a pandemic, all 3 are. (2/13)
a. Patients
b. Healthcare Professionals
c. Institutions (Hospitals, Government, Manufacturers)
Generally, in case of regular diseases (eg: Cancer, Hepatitis) 1 or 2 components are pressurized. In a pandemic, all 3 are. (2/13)
A. Patients : In a pandemic, a patient is the greatest threat to other citizens as he is the carrier of the disease. Further, the awareness of the novel flu takes a considerable time to be generated, leading to that patient already affecting many unconsciously. (3/13)
B. Healthcare Professionals: Limited in number, they face extreme pressure during a pandemic; high exposure to infections & very high fatigue due to continous shifts. As the curve rises, workforce gets reduced while the patient load increases, leading to a breaking point. (4/13)
C. Institutional Set-up
1. Hospitals: Hospitals, on a normal day are overflooded with elective surgeries. In a pandemic, they get operationally clogged: Limited Infra and working capital, sudden shift in administration and treatment protocols, dwindling human resources.
(5/13)
1. Hospitals: Hospitals, on a normal day are overflooded with elective surgeries. In a pandemic, they get operationally clogged: Limited Infra and working capital, sudden shift in administration and treatment protocols, dwindling human resources.
(5/13)
2. Government: Faces the brunt of steering the coordination between all 3 components and their sub-components. Procurement, treatment, awareness, capacity building, policy regulations, financing care etc completely exhausts the government machinery in a pandemic. (6/13)
3. Manufacturers: Limited inventory, raw material and working capital, spike in orders of particular consumables, declining work force, expedited logistics, approvals on new products, dynamic requirements, makes manufacturing slow, expensive and unfocused (7/13)
How can we make our health systems resilient to such pandemics? An 8 point plan:
1. Starting the process of personalised eHealth record. Govt should be able to monitor the geographic prevalence of diseases. This massively helps in early detection of any pandemic. (8/13)
1. Starting the process of personalised eHealth record. Govt should be able to monitor the geographic prevalence of diseases. This massively helps in early detection of any pandemic. (8/13)
2. Connecting every single point of care centre (Hospitals/Clinics) through a unified IT platform (directly or through APIs). This helps in mass communciation, trainings, exchange of protocols and development of peer to peer learning amongst doctors. (9/13)
3. Earmarking generic pandemic ready kits (PPEs, masks) in every hospital as a compulsory component just like how we have fire extinguishers
4. Making management of pandemics a compulsory area of study for all healthcare professionals in their professional courses (10/13)
4. Making management of pandemics a compulsory area of study for all healthcare professionals in their professional courses (10/13)
5. Developing a completely new and simple process for testing and validating healthcare technologies and rapidly adopting them
6. Augmenting financial resources spent on healthcare R&D such that we have access to all the infra required to expedite innovation (11/13)
6. Augmenting financial resources spent on healthcare R&D such that we have access to all the infra required to expedite innovation (11/13)
7. Earmarking a separate corpus of pandemic ready funds for deploying funds (grants + debt) to hospitals and manufactures
8. Involving the community for making pandemic ready plans at every level of society (12/13)
8. Involving the community for making pandemic ready plans at every level of society (12/13)
This is definitely not the last pandemic. Our patients, hospitals, doctors, nurses manufacturers, government and researchers need to evolve & be pandemic ready. In a whisker of moment, we would be facing our next pandemic. The time is now! (13/13)
