As the Covid-19 pandemic upends the healthcare system, stakeholders have discovered that the only way out of the crisis is to work together.
Payer, supplier, and pharmaceutical company have historically not had the smoothest relationship, although they sometimes cooperate to achieve success. But the pandemic has inspired a higher degree of cooperation than ever before, According to group members speaking at the virtual meeting of HIMSS 21 Digital.
During Covid, the most prominent example of teamwork may be the launch of vaccines.
“Seeing the number of cooperation, the number of stakeholders involved, and everyone’s willingness to put roadblocks and obstacles aside, and work together to get this vaccine into the arms of the American people, this really proves that cooperation can happen. ,” said Saira Haque, senior director of clinical informatics at Pfizer during the meeting.
Cooperation also helps to eliminate some preconceived notions of each player about each other, which Huck believes will ensure that the partnership formed during the pandemic can continue into the future.
Dr. Shantanu Nundy, CMO of Accolade, an employer-centric health and welfare solutions provider, expressed this view during the panel discussion.
“Our connective tissue and muscle based on a scientific and clinically-led collaboration… is a type of muscle memory that will continue to benefit us,” he said.
The benefits of industry cooperation will not only support the ongoing vaccine launch, but will also support another area that accelerates development during the pandemic: telemedicine.
The pandemic has caused a radical change in the way care is provided, and virtual visits have now become Care Continuum, Nundy said. This shift has brought opportunities for the healthcare industry to integrate more services digitally.
For example, if virtual visits are now available, why do patients have to undergo laboratory tests or why should they have consultations?
“Rather than treating it as telemedicine or virtual, I have always [thinking] Regarding it as distributed care,” Nundy said. “For me, the concept of distributed care is that we need to meet people where they are…this kind of thinking [not having] Care starts in the clinic or hospital, but [having] It began to get closer to the home, community and workplace. “
He added that distributed care needs to connect different parts of the patient’s journey, such as laboratory testing and access to medicines, which means that stakeholders must continue to collaborate.
However, as payers, suppliers, and pharmaceutical companies identify opportunities to join forces, they need to determine measurable goals.
Nundy said that the introduction of the vaccine benefits from specific targets that need to be met, such as injecting a specific number of vaccines into a specific number of arms before a specific date.
“Clarify what the goal is and be as ambitious as possible to get as close as possible to the results that are important to people. This is something we have always been very shy,” he said. “And I want to stand out from the crowd. We are more clear, ambitious and visionary about what we are trying to achieve.”
Photo: alphaspirit, Getty Images
