Strengthening the supply chain and letting companies communicate more freely are two of the ideas in a report from the HealthCare Leadership Council and other organizations about how to respond to future pandemics and other public health disasters. The reports’ recommendations include:
- Launching a standing disaster preparedness group, appointed by and working with the White House, which includes private sector expertise in production capacity, supply chain and distribution, data exchange, financing, and acute care delivery.
- Modernizing the healthcare supply chain through digitalization, automation, and predictive analytics, with standardized approaches for allocating resources based on need and equity to prevent bidding wars between states and healthcare providers.
- Creating measures to ensure health equity and address disparities.
- Improving economic resilience with strategic incentives such as no-interest loans, federally guaranteed purchase commitments, and geographic diversification of production for critical medical products.
- Building a 21st-century public health early warning system that will use all available electronic health records and public health data collection.
- Passing legislation and writing regulations to create rapid response capabilities in areas such as medical licensure portability, telehealth accessibility, and swift access to stockpiles of personal protection equipment.
- Making it easier for private industry and government to share data by updating antitrust laws, enacting privacy protections, and ensuring broad access to the data.
Stay the course, stay well, mask up, get vaccinated and stay tuned!