Roadmap to resilience: A post pandemic vision of healthcare delivery is a three-part series that looks at the future of resiliency in Australia and New Zealand’s health systems.
Article 3: Building post-pandemic resilience through technology and innovation
It would be amiss not to talk about the role of technology and innovation in discussions and decisions around building resilience in health systems. In the wake of the covid-19 pandemic, the digital health transformation seen in some countries has been remarkable, both in its speed and the extent to which changes have occurred. Articles #1 and #2 in this series explored the various ways that resilience in healthcare is defined, and highlighted different strategies and pathways for building more resilient health systems in the future.
This final article delves into some of the important technological shifts and digital health innovations that are changing the healthcare landscape, particularly in the context of Australia’s and New Zealand’s health systems.
It is undeniable that much of human, social and economic development in recent decades has been driven by rapid advances in technology and an increased reliance on digitised devices and services. The implications of these developments on the health sector have been immense and far-reaching, from the ways data are electronically shared across healthcare facilities, to novel approaches for diagnosing and treating medical conditions, to changing the ways patients and clinicians interact and discuss disease management. The pandemic alone has spearheaded innovative collaborations in vaccine development, the rapid screening of patients, and the monitoring of outbreaks through electronic contact tracing, all of which have relied heavily on technology. However, while adaptation and innovation have been described as instrumental in ensuring the resilience of health systems, experts caution that a balance between short- and long-term goals and priorities is necessary in order to properly address limitations in the design and functionality of a health system rather than react to acute crises.
