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Keynote I - Health Systems Challenges and Opportunities

Title: Health Systems Challenges and Opportunities
Speaker: Dr. Jos Vandelaer, World Health Organization

Biography:
Jos Vandelaer, MD, MPH currently serves as the WHO Representative to Thailand since October 2021.
Previously, he held pivotal roles including Regional Director for Emergencies at WHO South-East Asia
Keynote Sessions
and WHO Representative to Nepal, where he spearheaded critical health initiatives. With a career
spanning global immunization leadership at UNICEF and extensive fieldwork with Medecins Sans
Frontieres and international agencies, Dr. Vandelaer brings extensive expertise in public health and
emergency response to his current role.

Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic sent a shock wave through the health care landscape worldwide.
SARS-COV-2 infected billions of people and killed at least 14.9 million people (excess mortality). The
pandemic led to Public Health and Social Measures such as lockdowns and closure of borders. This caused
a second shock: regular health services were interrupted in 92% of countries at the height of the
pandemic in 2021, as most resources were diverted to battling Covid19, and patients and health
workers were unable to reach health facilities. Teleworking and telemedicine quickly became
acceptable ways of working and providing health care. Vaccines against SARS-COV-2 were
developed at never-seen speeds. While stronger health systems were better able to cope with this
double shock, in many countries health indicators have not yet returned to pre-covid levels.

Having lessons learned from the pandemic, and with substantial environmental, societal, political
and economic changes in the way societies live and operate, health systems need to recalibrate to a
new reality. Now more than ever, health systems need to be built to protect people from future health
threats AND make health for all a reality. This paper highlights some of the trends that will influence
and shape the further development of health systems, both as opportunities and challenges.
1. Future pandemics will remain a continuing threat. Covid19 has shown the damage a novel
virus can cause. While nobody can predict the detailed nature of any such future pandemic,
scenario planning may help to imagine the different directions that such future pandemics
might take. In any case, global mechanisms will need to be put in place to better monitor,
prepare and respond to future pandemic threats. Governments are negotiating a new
pandemic accord, and changes to the legally-binding International Health Regulations.
At national level, stronger public health responses to outbreaks need to be built to identify
the pathogen and the people exposed to it, monitor the spread in the community, break chains
of transmission, and communicate risk to the public. Public health will need to take
Whole-of-Society Approaches by involving all sectors of society to prepare for and respond to
the next health threat. And most importantly: health systems must be resilient enough to be
able to continue to provide basic services, even when a pandemic requires most resources.
Whereas global solidarity plays a crucial role in pandemic preparedness and response,
geopolitical changes can mean that countries may want to maintain a capacity to produce
or stockpile essential medicines, supplies, vaccines, rather than relying on importations.

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