Every year, the World Health Summit gathers central topics to discuss and work towards solutions. In 2021 they have announced six topics. Five of which were focus areas for the CTE Projects developed.
1: Vaccines: Moving Towards Health as a Global Public Good
Equal access for all to a COVID-19 vaccine has been a dominant political demand throughout the pandemic. How far have we advanced sharing the vaccine equitably and ensuring that it is considered a global public good? What political lessons have we learned for other areas of global health? What instruments can help ensure global public goods for health?
Defining a "Global Public Good" - The concept of a ‘global public good’ is an economic idea that at its simplest, refers to products, ideas, policies or issues with effects that could extend to everyone, everywhere. Despite its name, this actually has nothing to do with good or bad effects, as the word “good” here refers to products, rather than something that is beneficial or positive. In the context of health, this usually means programs, policies and services that have a truly global impact on health, usually positive impacts, even though those benefits or costs may not be equitable across the world. https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/are-vaccines-global-public-good
Articles with further detail/connections:
Are Vaccines a Global Public Good: In a world living with concurrent severe epidemics of cholera and measles, and now dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for affordable and available vaccines is more urgent than ever.
https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/are-vaccines-global-public-good
COVID-19 Vaccines A Global Common Good: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhl/article/PIIS2666-7568(20)30003-9/fulltext
Recovering from COVID-19: the importance of investing in global public goods for health: The pandemic has exposed inadequacies in health systems worldwide. International solidarity and multilateral support are needed to forge a better future against health challenges. https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/2020/07/recovering-from-covid19/
Our World in Data: Statistics and Research (COVID-19 Vaccines) https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations
2: WHO Council on the Economic of Health for All
Global Health needs new economic thinking – a proactive Health for All economic agenda, to shape our economies so they truly have wellbeing and inclusion at the center of how we create value, measure it and distribute it. Returning to the status quo following the pandemic will not be enough – WHO calls for innovation-led transformation of health systems to achieve economic well-being everywhere. We must rethink how we value health. The time has come for a new narrative that sees health not as a cost, but an investment that is the foundation of productive, resilient and stable economies. https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/reports/what-works-social-and-economic-opportunities-to-improve-health-for-all
Articles with Further Details and Connections:
Social and Economic Opportunities to Improve Health for All: When we work together to improve education, employment, income, and family and social supports—the social and economic factors that influence our communities—we can improve the health of all who live, learn, work, and play there. https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/reports/what-works-social-and-economic-opportunities-to-improve-health-for-all
The Meaning of "Health for All by the Year 2000": “Health for all” means that health is to be brought within reach of everyone in a given country. And by “health” is meant a personal state of wellbeing, not just the availability of health services—a state of health that enables a person to lead a socially and economically productive life. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4695953/
3: The Intersection of COVID-19 and Mental Health
Mental health problems affect us all. The massive unmet need for care, the abuses of fundamental rights of people with mental health problems, and the very low investment in mental health care nationally and through development assistance, are unacceptable, especially during this pandemic. Quite simply, mental health is the orphan child of the health care system and all countries are developing when it comes to mental health. No country will achieve the aspirations of Universal Health Coverage and an effective Health in All Policies approach to the pandemic without addressing mental health, for health care cannot be universal without mental health.
Some articles that have interesting connections:
WHO Investing in Mental Health: Evidence for Action. This is a longer piece on the WHO stance, there is A LOT of good information here. If this is a topic you are wanting to pursue you NEED to look through this document and get a good understanding of the situation at hand. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/87232/9789241564618_eng.pdf
Student Mental Health During and After COVID-19: How Can Schools Identify Youth Who Need Support? Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately 15 to 20% of students could be expected to be identified as needing support through screening (Dowdy et al., 2015); this percentage will almost certainly be higher given the potential emotional fallout of the pandemic. https://www.apa.org/topics/covid-19/student-mental-health
New Findings about Children's Mental Health During COVID-19. COVID-19 has brought about a complex array of factors (uncertainty, social isolation, and parental angst) that have an impact on the mental health of children and adolescents. https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/new-findings-children-mental-health-covid-19
4: Artificial Intelligence in Global Health(care)
Artificial intelligence has led to improvements in areas of healthcare such as medical imaging, automated clinical decision-making, diagnosis, prognosis, and more. Although AI possesses the capability to revolutionize several fields of medicine, it must be bound by ethical and regulatory approaches that ensure patient’s rights.
Articles with further detail/connections:
Quick Overview of AI in Healthcare:https://www.modernhealthcare.com/indepth/artificial-intelligence-in-healthcare-makes-slow-impact/
These are the Startups Applying AI to Transform Healthcare: How is AI being applied right now https://www.forbes.com/sites/robtoews/2020/08/26/ai-will-revolutionize-healthcare-the-transformation-has-already-begun/?sh=172395d5722f
What are the Big Ethical Challenges facing AI in Health Care: Issues around trust, accountability, and power. https://www.hallandpartners.com/big-ethical-challenges-for-ai-in-healthcare
Ten Steps to Ethics-Based Governance of AI in Health Care: https://www.statnews.com/2020/11/03/artificial-intelligence-health-care-ten-steps-to-ethics-based-governance/
IBM Watson: Free use of their data lab https://www.research.ibm.com/labs/watson/#:~:text=Watson%20Research%20Center%20includes%20facilities,12%20labs%20on%20six%20continents.
TOP AI Companies in Healthcare: https://medicalfuturist.com/top-artificial-intelligence-companies-in-healthcare#
5: Pandemic Preparedness: Lessons from COVID-19
The global response to COVID-19 has called our global pandemic preparedness into question. Now we must build with urgency on experiences made. New forms of collaboration and strengthened partnerships have emerged as central to the response. We have seen unprecedented speed to develop the tests, treatments and vaccines needed to keep the world safe. But the question remains; from science and research to policy and implementation, has the world truly shifted in terms of our ability to react? How can we build towards the future after COVID-19, and ensure preparedness for the challenges to come.
Related Articles to provide more insight:
Improving Pandemic Preparedness: Lessons from COVID-19: The United States is among the countries most affected by the coronavirus, with about 24 percent of global cases (as of August 31) but just 4 percent of the world’s population. https://www.cfr.org/report/pandemic-preparedness-lessons-COVID-19/
The COVID‐19 pandemic: some lessons learned about crisis preparedness and management, and the need for international benchmarking to reduce deficits: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7264722/