KEY CONCLUSIONS
Health care is a sector of the economy, and the pandemic has shown the need to change attitudes toward health, doctors, and health care
"Truly unprecedented measures have been taken in the areas of health care support, business support and, of course, social support for citizens. And what is the first lesson we learned? In my opinion it is the importance of changing the attitudes toward one's health, the health of loved ones, and the overall health of the family. It is important to change attitudes in general towards doctors, healthcare, and this is the first thing that is happening in society today," Galina Karelova, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.
"Medicine is not a part of being – it is the basis of being, the basis of the economy. Without health care, everything else doesn't work. <...> Smoking, abusing alcohol, staying still, lack of a balanced diet, not getting vaccinated – it is careless behavior we can no longer afford. Public healthcare is the foundation, everything else builds upon it," Dmitry Morozov, Deputy, Chairman of the Health Protection Committee, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.
"Health care is as much a branch of state economy as all the others. Its work, as the previous year has illustrated, directly shows the stability of the entire economy. Accordingly, healthcare must support certain overall functions. Otherwise, it will be difficult to achieve financial goals and results. We understand that this is here where the cycle loops, as the health of citizens depends, among other things, on the economy," Mikhail Murashko, Minister of Health of the Russian Federation.
PROBLEM
Health care, including primary care and rehabilitation, needs to be modernized
"Despite the measures that have been taken within healthcare, the whole system, the whole industry, needs to be reconfigured. Above all there is a need to take a new look at the modernization of primary health care. <...> What is also important is to reconfigure the system of personnel training and retraining. If we talk about restructuring the health care system, we have raised the question of modernizing the infectious disease service on more than one forum. <...> We see that 70% of those who have had coronavirus need rehabilitation. We need a new formula for creating this system," Galina Karelova, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.
"Today it's time to pay particular attention to the modernization of primary health care. To modernize the polyclinic service itself is probably not as effective as people expect. It should be done in a target-oriented way, with improved service, and the satisfaction of citizens should be taken into account. What is needed for this to happen? First, we need to clearly understand what we have going on, that is, we need to have analytics, built on data. Without this it will be difficult to move on," Mikhail Murashko, Minister of Health of the Russian Federation.
SOLUTIONS
Updating the system of personnel training and retraining, modernization of medical services, and the creation of a system of disease prevention using digital technology and artificial intelligence
"We have to take into account the Internet of Things, which is actively becoming one of the key components in all our life in general and in healthcare in particular. We have to understand that biotechnology, gene therapy, and a number of other trends are emerging. Just the day before yesterday the prime minister [of the Russian Federation - Ed.] made a decision to expand neonatal screening for a number of diseases. More and more subtle technologies are coming into our lives, it is all being digitized and put into a kind of human life path from birth to old age," Mikhail Murashko, Minister of Health of the Russian Federation.
"The first [conclusion after the pandemic - Ed.] is to increase investment in the workforce. If a society is unhealthy, it affects other factors. Russia invests in education, in the development of competencies, in the retention of this personnel to avoid brain drain. Russia is investing to get talent to come here and stay here, but it still faces a shortage of doctors and nurses. So, we have to bet on artificial intelligence to shift some of the functions to robots," Hans Henri P. Kluge, Regional Director for Europe, World Health Organization.
"As for the [health care system itself - Ed.], Covid has taught us to think a little differently, hospitals have to respond to mobile repurposing. We have to be more mobile. Occupational medicine is where the real prevention lies, because who knows the employee better than the factory doctor? We have really made serious strides in home care <...>. And medical colleagues must unite, instantly share experience and knowledge, because no one gets sick individually anymore, everyone gets sick across the borders," Dmitry Morozov, Deputy, Chairman of the Health Protection Committee, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.
"What is the advantage of digitalization today? It is a qualitative leap in health care," Olga Golodets, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board, Sberbank.
Health care renewal should be based on a targeted approach and human-centeredness
"Today, we can already assess hereditary predispositions and a number of tests can predict the possibilities, as well as assess the risk of developing a particular disease. It is called predictive medicine. Using predictive medicine, we can go out for targeted disease prevention, treatment, and follow-up. But when we build a digital profile of a single patient, it is personal follow-up for one person. But when we create a digital profile of a region, we get a profile of morbidity, a profile of health. We begin to reconfigure the healthcare system for the specific region and municipality, including by forming public health and the public environment, which should encourage people to lead a lifestyle that allows them to live longer. Without this, it is difficult to consider modern models," Mikhail Murashko, Minister of Health of the Russian Federation.
"We need to change the targets for digitalization, and as we talk about targeting everyone, we need to target health care management instead," Olga Golodets, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board, Sberbank.
"We have to start from a human-centered perspective in our health care strategy. We need to learn lessons from the financial and economic crises: 10 years ago, when the healthcare budget was cut, it led to the current healthcare problems," Hans Henri P. Kluge, Regional Director for Europe, World Health Organization.
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