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Time to Discuss a “Health Equity Moonshot”

March 31, 2021
5:41 pm

This month, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing on the health inequities witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The topics discussed in that hearing warrant our sustained attention.

I’m particularly focused on the testimony of Eugene Woods, the president and CEO of Atrium Health (a Healthcare Leadership Council member), a North Carolina-based health system. Out of the tragedies we have witnessed during COVID-19, which have disproportionately affected racial and ethnic populations as well as areas with high rates of poverty and comparably limited healthcare access, Mr. Woods sees an opportunity to do something significant and transformative.

As he put it, “The COVID-19 pandemic has come at a great cost to the world. We should view this reality as an investment that allows us to emerge stronger.  Through unity and collaboration, government and industry are capable of great things. This has been, and still is, a core tenet of American exceptionalism.”

In his testimony, Mr. Woods offered the notion of a private-public collaboration not unlike the efforts that put astronauts on the moon or the Cancer Moonshot Initiative of a few years ago.  In fact, he referred to it as a “health equity moonshot” and suggested four priorities to address the equity gaps that have existed for too long but were made glaringly obvious during the pandemic.  They are:

  • Extending health coverage access beyond the current Public Health Emergency by utilizing innovative private models and government-based structures.
  • Creating worldwide standards for data collection and full data interoperability to enable real-time analytics.
  • Making broadband available to every rural and urban community in the country.
  • Using technology to support sustained well-being, particularly in underserved communities.

If we truly believe in the goal of accessible, high-quality healthcare for every American, then this is an idea that should receive extensive attention and discussion.  To quote Mr. Woods again, “While COVID-19 and the public health emergency we have faced may fade over time, the health inequities the pandemic uncovered will persist if we don’t take this moment to come together around an ambitious goal.”

The Extraordinary Pandemic Efforts You Didn’t See

March 19, 2021
7:57 am

America is well aware of the heroic work performed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic by physicians, nurses and other front line healthcare professionals, tirelessly handling a rapidly escalating number of cases as the virus spread and hospitals were stretched to capacity and beyond.

But what we didn’t see was the vital work taking place behind the scenes to reconfigure healthcare data systems so that COVID-19 treatment guidelines could be rapidly disseminated, patient data could be made readily available, in-person exchanges could be shifted to telehealth, and more healthcare professionals could have access to critical data as they, too, were forced to work from home as America quarantined.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mayo Clinic Chief Information Officer Cris Ross described having to make decisions in days and weeks that would normally require months on how to make changes to the Clinic’s information technology systems in order to meet an unprecedented challenge.

He said, “We had to make close to 3,000 changes in our electronic health-records system to recognize rapidly evolving hospital-facility changes and protocols. Clinical guidelines for Covid treatment were developed and made available from within the records system. So, for example, if someone arrives at the emergency department who may have Covid, what are the steps? If that patient is admitted, what’s the next step? And if they’re sent to an ICU, what’s the next step?”

The rapid changes required of Mayo and other health systems when the pandemic struck underscores the importance of better preparing the nation for future health crises. Last year and into early 2021, the Healthcare Leadership Council worked with 100 different healthcare, employer and patient advocacy organizations to develop a comprehensive set of recommendations on how to strengthen private-public collaborations on disaster readiness and response. They include the creation of a 21st century public health data infrastructure that will enable real time access to critical information necessary to get ahead of a rapidly evolving crisis like COVID-19.

Many of the recommendations in this report were included in the recently-passed American Rescue Act, but much more work remains to be done before the next catastrophe strikes.