Re-Learning Health Education

An article that came out in Fortune appears to foretell the disruption that has started and will gain momentum in the future. Who among us would have imagined that “the new path to a six-figure salary will no longer require a college degree?” How will the academe remain relevant—and more importantly, how will education morph?

The answers to these questions will not be easy because they will entail major changes in what is and what was. Industries are being disrupted, ignited by the measures undertaken to contain the pandemic. The many subjects, that form part of the curriculum implemented to get students ready for employment, may not even be applicable anymore with the transforming and restructuring being done as an offshoot of the crisis.

The health industry is at the center of these storms as the inadequacies of the health systems surfaced in this crisis. The health industry is part of a world that was conditioned to think treatment rather than prevention; where disease protocols are focused on the body systems rather than in the patients as individuals with different needs and circumstances; where technology is pursued regardless of the cost, and where life gets extension without regard for the quality of living. This is an industry that only measured patients’ outcomes while in the care system, rather than adding value to the communities by improving population health.

COVID-19 is changing our health realities. Groaning under the weight of the care burden now, we need to reconstruct the health system into one that will be more sturdy, resilient, and agile if we are to be prepared for other crises in the future. We do not want to see our world stop turning – ever again.

Health-care trends

The lockdowns, social distancing and other measures imposed to contain COVID-19 have accelerated the adoption of major trends we used to just tiptoe around with.

Telehealth, telemedicine, web consultations, contact tracing, health data analytics are modalities resisted by practitioners and other health professionals for so long until that choice had been taken away.

Because hospitals and other health providers became inaccessible, people are now more conscious of prevention and started to learn self-care. Expect patients to participate in health decisions, forcing the health industry to become more person-centered, personalized and transparent.

Communication and messaging are critical to health care. The pandemic spawned infodemic—and that means the health sector will need to counter these by providing rational and fact-based information.

The cost structure will change as patients will want higher quality service that is accessible, affordable and available.The health delivery system will be reconfigured. The fear of hospitals now will hopefully signal a shift to what should be—accessing health care at facilities and with providers according to the level of patients’ care needs. That means: more focus on prevention rather than cure, more primary care than hospital care; integrated delivery networks that service holistically rather than in fragmented parts; shift from large academic medical centers to community and population health; and, shift from physician-centered care to multi-disciplinary teams supported by special skills in a continuum of care that happens in multiple settings.

Therefore, the health-care workforce will have to likewise transform to be in step with these trends that will require new skills, even new health professions. The shortages now are a signal of the need to recalibrate skills and allow the entry of new players.

Teachers’ burden

On the educators will fall the responsibility of preparing the next generation how to live, survive and thrive in a radically changed world. That is a challenge because who can even say they understand the world now —much more teach the hows and whys? One thing is certain —the way education is being delivered must undergo structural change to rise to the call of the times, starting with adopting a more liberal mindset.

On the flipside, these challenges will also unlock potential opportunities for the education sector to help, rather than hinder the flow that can no longer be stemmed.

Heading the list will be public health. We will see health systems decentralized to enhance containment capabilities. That means rural communities will need help through simple/basic training for self-care to lessen the burden to the health system. The academe can work with local governments in providing these in less structured, more progressive ways.

It is also way past time to introduce in curricula well-care, and treat prevention and maintenance of health as equally important as curative care. This need is highlighted with the rise of mental health issues.

Ways must be explored to bring in alternative health care into the system, such as providing herbal medicines as cheaper drug choice.

Discussions have already started about the aging populations. What courses can we now design to get students trained for this emerging challenge and its various complications? There are a lot of opportunities here for short and full courses, in areas such as providing care for Alzheimer’s, chronic dementia and other conditions associated with aging.

Our collective future depends on how well the educational system can question and disrupt its own familiar structures that served us for centuries—and initiate the changes that will enable the next-gen education, welcome hybrid and alternative learning systems, make space for out-of-the-box thinking and innovation, take steps to be partners in upskilling, reskilling and retooling the present and future workforce and acknowledge that the best education we can give to our students will lie not only in finding the answers, but in asking the questions—because then, innovations follow.

If we do our jobs right, we will pave the way for a generation that will be members of a health community that works seamlessly in providing quality and responsive health care to the population. INQ