Societal Resilience Requires a Public Health Focus

We must make a serious commitment to increase financial resources and provide better analytics for real world evidence/real time data in support of public health.John Halamka, M.D., president, Mayo Clinic Platform, and Paul Cerrato, senior research analyst and communications specialist, Mayo Clinic Platform, wrote this article.Public health has been underfunded for decades. That neglect has had a profound impact since the COVID-19 pandemic has taken hold, and awakened policy makers and thought leaders to the need for more investment.Consider the statistics: The U.S. spends about $3.6 trillion each year on healthbut less than 3% of that amount on public health and prevention. A2020 Forbes report likewise pointed out that “From the late 1960s to the 2010s, the federal share of total health expenditure for public health dropped from 45 percent to 15 percent.” This relative indifference to public health is partly responsible for the nation’s mixed response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Arecent McKinsey& Company analysis concluded: “Government leaders remain focused on navigating the current crisis, but making smart investments now can both enhance the ongoing COVID-19 response and strengthen public-health systems to reduce the chance of future pandemics. Investments in public health and other public goods are sorely underva lued; investments in preventive measures, whose success is invisible, even more so.”Among the other “public goods” that require more investmen...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs