NAM special publication focuses on COVID lessons learned
by Craig Boerner
Emerging Stronger from COVID-19: Priorities for Health System Transformation, a new special publication from the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), was released today as an opportunity to leverage lessons learned from the pandemic to transform health, health care and health delivery in the United States.
The publication pulls together nine discussion papers that assessed the pandemic’s impact on each major health care system sector and provided a deep dive into the experiences of those on the front lines of responding to the pandemic, a summary of key lessons learned from those experiences, and highlights of the systemwide implications.
“With this report, we have an unprecedented opportunity to capitalize on the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said NAM Steering Committee member Jeff Balser, MD, PhD, Dean, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and President and CEO, Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
“The pandemic exposed critical vulnerabilities in our nation’s health system, which in turn has given us the chance to make transformational improvements for the benefit of everyone.”
The NAM, in tandem with the field leaders already working collaboratively through the NAM Leadership Consortium, formed teams from across all of the major health system sectors to assess the sector-specific impacts from COVID-19, the lessons learned from each sector, and the cross-cutting lessons for systemwide transformation.
Release of this NAM special publication will be followed by special initiatives of the NAM Leadership Consortium to catalyze progress with emphasis on priorities related to health financing, community and individual engagement, digital health, and accelerated evidence generation.
A meeting will be scheduled by NAM in Fall 2022 to review the findings, priorities and collaborative activities for progress.