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How Academic Health Systems Can Be Ready for the Next Pandemic.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Dzau, VJ; Ellaissi, WF; Krishnan, KRR; Balatbat, CA
Published in: Acad Med
April 1, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic created significant challenges for academic health systems (AHSs) across their tripartite mission of providing clinical care, conducting research, and educating learners. Despite these challenges, AHSs played an invaluable role in responding to the pandemic. Clinicians worked tirelessly to care for patients, and institutions quickly reoriented their care delivery systems. Furthermore, AHSs played an important role in advancing science, launching studies and clinical trials to examine new vaccines and treatments for COVID-19. However, there is room for improvement; AHSs can use lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic to reshape their operations for the future. To prepare for the next pandemic, AHSs must modernize, adapt, and transform their clinical operations, research infrastructure, and educational programs to include public health and to build surveillance capacity for detecting, monitoring, and managing emerging outbreaks. In this Invited Commentary, the authors describe the opportunities AHSs have to build on their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and the ways they can take advantage of their unique strengths in each of their 3 mission areas. Within clinical care, AHSs can reach patients outside traditional clinical settings, build national and regional networks, advance data-driven insights, engage with the community, and support and protect the workforce. Within research, they can leverage data science and artificial intelligence, perform pandemic forecasting, leverage the social and behavioral sciences, conduct clinical trials, and build a research and development preparedness and operational plan. Within education, AHSs can promote remote learning, make interprofessional learning the norm, and build a system of continuing education.

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Published In

Acad Med

DOI

EISSN

1938-808X

Publication Date

April 1, 2022

Volume

97

Issue

4

Start / End Page

479 / 483

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Workforce
  • Public Health
  • Pandemics
  • Humans
  • General & Internal Medicine
  • COVID-19
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • 4203 Health services and systems
  • 3901 Curriculum and pedagogy
  • 1302 Curriculum and Pedagogy
 

Citation

APA
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Dzau, V. J., Ellaissi, W. F., Krishnan, K. R. R., & Balatbat, C. A. (2022). How Academic Health Systems Can Be Ready for the Next Pandemic. Acad Med, 97(4), 479–483. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000004572
Dzau, Victor J., William F. Ellaissi, K Ranga Rama Krishnan, and Celynne A. Balatbat. “How Academic Health Systems Can Be Ready for the Next Pandemic.Acad Med 97, no. 4 (April 1, 2022): 479–83. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000004572.
Dzau VJ, Ellaissi WF, Krishnan KRR, Balatbat CA. How Academic Health Systems Can Be Ready for the Next Pandemic. Acad Med. 2022 Apr 1;97(4):479–83.
Dzau, Victor J., et al. “How Academic Health Systems Can Be Ready for the Next Pandemic.Acad Med, vol. 97, no. 4, Apr. 2022, pp. 479–83. Pubmed, doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000004572.
Dzau VJ, Ellaissi WF, Krishnan KRR, Balatbat CA. How Academic Health Systems Can Be Ready for the Next Pandemic. Acad Med. 2022 Apr 1;97(4):479–483.

Published In

Acad Med

DOI

EISSN

1938-808X

Publication Date

April 1, 2022

Volume

97

Issue

4

Start / End Page

479 / 483

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Workforce
  • Public Health
  • Pandemics
  • Humans
  • General & Internal Medicine
  • COVID-19
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • 4203 Health services and systems
  • 3901 Curriculum and pedagogy
  • 1302 Curriculum and Pedagogy