Industry & Innovation

Summary

This section summarizes the current status and efforts and downside risks contributed from industry and innovation related to rapid digital adoption and data-sharing practices, business and corporate responsibility and manufacturing, key findings, and recommendations to address COVID-19 now and for future pandemics.

The private sector industry plays an often overlooked yet essential role in this response. The goal of this sector is to hold accountable corporations and businesses in their role in providing financial support for relief efforts for the economy, healthcare, and individual employees and their role in collaborating across industry to develop and expand Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital data-sharing practices, social responsibility efforts in supporting employees, and innovation in the development of critical equipment such as ventilators, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and vaccines.

Recommendations:

• Establishment of a national interoperability Health Information Exchange (HIE) among all healthcare entities to ensure health equity measures due to pandemic effects.
• Standardized and enable actionable information sharing capabilities to enable proactive pandemic response readiness.
• Corporations and businesses must adopt strategic social responsibility campaigns centered around donating time, money, and industry expertise in partnership with healthcare systems and all levels of government.
• Corporations and businesses must enact upper-level salary reductions during the time of economic turnover to limit furloughs and layoffs, provide comprehensive mental health, and paid sick leave benefits to all employees.
• Manufacturing conversion of production to PPE should be discussed with the local, state, and federal government bodies, ensure standardized health and safety production guidelines, training on daily operations and manufacturing standards, and establish liability protections.
• Manufacturing conversion and management of ventilators production should be discussed with policymakers and healthcare leaders to understand supply and demand with proper guidance on high quality and reliable device production for frontline staff use.

Authors