The University of Miami Herbert Business School, in the light of the concerns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, held a virtual conference on October 30, 2020. The goal of the conference was to reimagine a healthier industry in the wake of the pandemic and discuss valuable and actionable reforms regardless of who wins the presidential election. The conference shed light on the need to integrate improved payment methods, the blended use of technologies in the sphere of healthcare, as well as the heightened awareness of inclusion and diversity among other reforms. The panelist argued that the global spread of the coronavirus had increased the need of the international sphere of healthcare to introduce the changes that had already been identified previously.
According to the University President Julio Frenk who spoke at the conference, the healthcare industry must be attentive to the lessons of the pandemic and not only adapt to the new ānormalā but also create a more improved idea of ānormal.ā Personally, this statement truly resonated with me as I grew to understand the true impact of the pandemic not only on the lives of individuals but also on society as a whole (Malone, 2020). Indeed, health care has already transformed significantly over the course of the pandemic and will continue changing, with some of the adjustments often being unpredictable due to the way in which disease progresses.
The impact of the conference was great on me personally as the range of opinions and perspectives of the professionals who spoke at the conference all shared one thing in common: it is high time for the healthcare sphere to be more consistent and together in its efforts of helping society overcome the health crisis (Malone, 2020). Even though the discussions were highly concentrated on the payment and technological sides of the healthcare process, the consensus was that significant changes in the direction of advancement and concentration of knowledge were needed, and they were needed urgently. Investment in basic science and infectious disease research is highly relevant today, and it is essential that the centers working on the issue have the necessary resources to respond quickly and effectively. However, the speakers raised concerns over the pressure that federal and state budgets would encounter as a result of enormous costs incurred to services during the crisis of the pandemic.
Besides, in the light of the cultural divide associated with the pandemic, the panelists also discussed ways to increase diversity and inclusion within the workforce. This issue is especially relevant in the context of data collection and uses when generalizing findings to the entire population. Specifically, data on coronavirus spread is highly marginalized, with more attention being paid to the statistics in developer regions while the healthcare authorities of developing regions are not being held to the same standard of accountability (Thomas et al., 2020). Biases could be especially dangerous in the case of a pandemic because they facilitate the exclusion of some groups from the systematic global effort of overcoming the healthcare threat (Thomas et al., 2020). Overall, I found great value in attending the online conference, even though the participants were not together in person. I agree with the speakers in the idea that the pandemic could only be managed through a systematic improvement effort and the elimination of biases that have been perpetuated in society.
References
Malone, M. (2020). Conference explores how to shape the health care industry.Ā Web.
Thomas, M., Michaels, E., Darling-Hammond, S., Nguyen, T., Glymour, M., & Vittinghoff, E. (2020). Whites’ county-level racial bias, COVID-19 rates, and racial inequities in the United States. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(22), 8695. Web.