The Great Re-Engagement: The Future of Global Healthcare

Peter Brindley joins you again to bring you The Great Re-Engagement, alongside Pelesa Motshabi Chakane, Silvia Perez-Protto and Andrew Shaw.

 

This episode explores the future of healthcare, and the ways to utilise the global community, research, and technology to enable greater contentment for clinicians to enable excellent healthcare at a global level.

 

What will successful medicine look like in 10 years’ time if we get it right? It is a daunting prospect to consider. Palesa hopes that the positivity that has been borne out of the Covid-19 pandemic continues. She believes it will be the capacity for the healthcare system to utilise the unity that has been exhibited over the last two years will be the driving force for ongoing positive change. Ideally, this leads to healthcare for everyone, prevention of sickness and disease and exceptional care for the whole person. Silvia speaks of her dream of the abolition of healthcare disparity and universal access for all.

 

Andrew hopes that the medical community will engage both science and art to make these dreams reality. Andrew speaks about the integration of technology into the practise of medicine and explores the potential benefits and disadvantages. Further he speaks to the changing nature of healthcare to be servicing customers as opposed to patients. This comes with greater choice for individuals accessing healthcare. He sees this “relationship based” healthcare as key to ensuring technology does not become all consuming.

 

Prevention, rather than cure, is a key tenant to the development of healthcare in Andrew’s opinion. This sentiment is founded on an agreement to a moral contract by the medical community. The moral contract contains within it a right to affordable and accessible healthcare for all.

 

Silvia feels poor data collection, especially in terms of underrepresented groups, is hindering the design and implementation of health care systems. The way forward is meaningful engagement with all patients to better design systems. Palesa provides a viewpoint from a system in lower income countries. Whilst the medium and high-income countries are faced with challenges surrounded by the rising use of technology and perhaps patient disengagement, Palesa makes the point that for most of the world, burden of disease is still the major challenge to be faced. Utilising technology in an appropriate way to bridge the gap between low- and high-income countries is the way forward

 

Balancing education, research and clinical care is another challenge that is becoming more and more apparent. Andrew thinks that clinical care is, and must be, at the forefront of medical practise. It is what the patients hold most highly and for good reason. Whilst education and research are important, these pursuits may be best to be left to those who are legitimately good at them. The team discuss the best ways to balance being pulled in multiple directions whilst keeping the patients at the forefront.

 

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