COVID Crashed Healthcare

By Dr. Nick van Terheyden aka Dr. Nick
Twitter: @drnic1
Host of Dr. Nick: The Incrementalist#TheIncrementalist

On this episode I talked to David Nash, MD (@nashpophealth) the founding Dean Emeritus and Professor of Health Policy at Jefferson College of Population Health. David like me have family working in front-line healthcare and struggled through the pandemic response and the enormous challenges this placed on our healthcare system and the staff who work in healthcare.

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We dive into his book: How COVID-19 Crashed the System: A Personal Journey and Policy Prescription and discuss the opportunities to fix what’s broken. We talk about American individualism, exceptionalism, and federalism, which contributed to the challenges during the pandemic.

We discuss the shocking nature of supply chain disruption and the consequent shortage of medical supplies that induced astounding protective measures such as armed guards around PPE. We dive into the failures in the response to the pandemic including the slow adoption of basic medical procedures like proning and steroid use. The conversation touched on some positives that came out of the pandemic as well. And the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on poor people of color, with some people denying the impact on minority groups.

On the positive side, we saw the acceleration of science and the development of the new mRNA vaccine, which was made possible by basic science and research that had been taking place over the preceding years. Without this ongoing investment, we would not have had such impressive options to help combat the pandemic

Listen in to hear our discussion on improving population health and the need to focus on improving health rather than just healthcare delivery, and to shift towards a more preventative approach and helping leaders achieve the “true north” of improving health. We end by discussing the issue of burnout in the medical profession and the need for a shift toward humanism and communication rather than heroism.

This article was originally published on the Dr. Nick – The Incrementalist blog and is republished here with permission.

About the Show
For years Dr. Nick van Terheyden aka Dr. Nick, has served as a voice on the impact of new technologies on healthcare, earning a reputation as a leading authority on where the future of medicine is going. Combining powers of observation and real world experience, Dr. Nick has seen many predictions come true and makes the case that innovations in healthcare can be accomplished incrementally, not just by moonshot events. Tune in to hear Dr. Nick: The Incrementalist and his guests discuss what the future of healthcare looks like, how we will get there, and what it will take to improve healthcare for all.

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