Individuals

Even though it is not easy as an individual to influence government policies and to bring in innovative solutions in healthcare, there are a few ways that we can all contribute:

• First, let's make ourselves aware of the situation that exists in terms of lack of access to healthcare in our neighbourhood, country and in the world.
• Let's try and spread that knowledge within our community, our circle of friends, family and colleagues.
• Put together a team of like-minded, concerned individuals and start to raise funds for a local clinic, healthcare centre or hospital, or for a TF project
• Try and arrange health camps like eye, ENT, dental check ups in nearby villages where there may be a lack of healthcare facilities.
• Let's place ourselves on the organ and tissue donors’ registry in our country
• Donate blood to save lives.
• Join up with TF to help children get access to healthcare in the Himalayan villages

Governments & Policy Makers

Our healthy future cannot be achieved without putting the health and wellbeing of populations at the centre of public policy.Greater investment in healthcare would make people, particularly vulnerable population groups, more resilient to health risks.

The health sector faces a severe crisis of underinvestment. The cost of essential health services globally is put at about US $90 per person per year. In 2015, 71 countries invested less than this and 41 nations, with a combined population of 2.6 billion, invested less than US $25 per person.

All too often, communities are reliant on unsustainable philanthropy and NGOs for a subset of healthcare needs, and there is a stark absence of foundational capacity and technologies like nursing, medicine supplies, electronic health records, ultrasound screening, to name just a few.

Health development should be coordinated between all concerned government ministries and agencies and with all stakeholders, including academia, professional associations, the private sector and civil society organizations. Efforts must be made to promote the centrality of health in comprehensive socioeconomic development.

The private sector is assuming a growing role in both financing and delivery of health care. However, care must be taken to ensure that such developments are not at the expense of an effective and efficient public sector and to ensure that they are implemented under strong leadership and governance from the government. Privatization of health service delivery must be well designed and guided by ministries of health and other related departments, taking into consideration the social obligations of governments in health development and the main health system goals.

National and local government, impacted communities and service providers must come together to offer resilient, community-owned healthcare clinics.These clinics should offer integrated healthcare enabled by digital technologies and capacity building services, like education and staff training, all under one roof.

This is a proven concept providing value for all partners, making these clinics sustainable, flexible and ready to scale. And in solving infrastructure and network challenges, the clinics pave the way for “local for local” targeted innovation in medical devices and connected care, by using resilient technologies, population health and virtual services at a fair and competitive price point.

Here are the proposed recommendationsfor the Governments& Policy makersto install a comprehensive healthcare system for its citizens:

• Promote investment in healthcare as having an economic return and advocate the centrality of health in all development initiatives.
• Play a leadership role in healthcare in order toprotect societal values of equity, solidarity and fairness in line with Health-For-All policies andstrategies which consider health as a human right and not as a market commodity.
• Strengthen their governance in policy development,regulation of healthcare markets and public/private mix management. The role of government in service delivery shouldensure secure access for the poor, vulnerable groups and rural and remotepopulations to quality healthcare.
• Promote the development of national health system observatories with stakeholders from across the health care system, aimed at assessing equity and health system performance and better adapt policyreforms to the evolving changes in the political, economic and social fields.
• Invest in and support acquisition of new knowledge, innovative solutions and technology to develop improved practices, for healthcare toreach the remote populations and improve quality, response times and efficiency of the health systems.
• Invest in developing quality healthcare workforces and monitor health care quality, especially in the remote areas of the country.

Innovation & Industry

The adoption of digital healthcare tools and services is a vital step towards upgrading the quality and consistency of healthcare services in emerging nations. However, infrastructure limitations – no or poor power supply, hard to reach locations, security issues – can be insurmountable for a narrow set of partners.

Networked care: addressing the social determinants of health

In mature markets, cloud-based services support improved access and outcomes, especially for populations in rural settings, like remote farming communities situated many hours away from the specialist diagnostic and treatment services needed to support complex diseases like cancer.

Too often, patients are reliant on general hospitals ill equipped to deal with specialist cases. However innovative rural health systems can help to overcome this blind spot – connecting regional care centres with specialist hubs of expertise, equipped with the staff and technology required by the patient. Innovation is increasing the capacity and coverage of important services like tele-radiology, digital pathology and genomics; enhancing the patient’s likelihood of a first-time right diagnosis.

Networked care will also improve outcomes and experiences in chronic disease management, a vital area in overcoming the social determinants of health. Home tele-health programmes provide daily connection between post-acute caregivers and patients, integrating connected technologies with clinical care pathways. For example, with in-home monitoring devices, clinicians can monitor patients’ vital signs remotely: identifying symptoms and intervening early to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions and visits to the emergency department. There are great opportunities to achieve a breakthrough in access to primary healthcare through Networked care.

Unlocking impact and scale through business model innovation

To achieve meaningful scale and access, one must combine investment and innovation built on a digital health network with an attractive business model. With global levels of disease on the rise, to tackle the current cycle of inconsistent access, rising costs and falling health outcomes, we first need a new approach to traditional volume-based reimbursements in healthcare, which can act as a constraint in the effective use of health data and the adoption of eHealth solutions.

To challenge the status quo, the situation calls for an inclusive model, whereby payers, healthcare providers and supporting partners are incentivized according to the quality (and outcomes) delivered.

Solar powered medical facilities

Clinical and diagnostic facilities need to be built in rural areas incorporating solar panels and rainwater collection systems, where there's limited potable water, reliable electricity, internet, or sanitary facilities.

With more companies waking up to the economic and societal benefits of a multi-stakeholder approach, there should be optimism that the new decade will emerge as a time when digital technology, inclusive innovation and progressive partnerships step up to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, including tackling healthcare’s global access and quality constraints.