Since 2019, when the pandemic started, the function of population health has become a vital part of healthcare systems in the world and has entered a very different and essential age. The most outstanding alteration here is how technology has been embraced, primarily through telemedicine tools, enabling remote and real-time health surveillance. Integrations were one of the significant developments that led to numerous benefits, such as increased accessibility, including services for older people, other vulnerable people, and those who live in rural areas. The clients are allowed to access healthcare providers remotely. From there, the risk of virus transmission is reduced, and the reserve pressure placed on traditional healthcare facilities is not high. Nevertheless, it is worth bearing in mind that e-health and e-medicine also have opened new possibilities, but, on the other hand, there are difficulties like the digital divide or the clinical evaluation quality of teleconsultation. Consequently, although technology in the healthcare industry has improved care delivery, these issues must always be acknowledged to ensure equal access and quality of care for all patients.
The current scenario of immense efforts in inventing and dispensing vaccines intends to extinguish the ongoing transmission of this deadly disease and build up herd immunity. Vaccines demonstrated increased efficacy in the prevention of severe conditions and mortality, but diversity has been shown in their role in population immunity achievement. Obstacles like the anti-vaccination movement, uneven vaccine distribution, and the surprising emergence of new variants play a role in the covid pandemic and make it difficult to get widespread immunity (Navaratnam et al., 2024). Furthermore, the controversial issue of who should be offered the vaccine first, including various subgroups, has fueled discussions on equity and fairness. Declaring frontline healthcare workers and the remaining vulnerable population priority groups in such a planning process is understandable. Still, some groups – such as essential workers and people with health problems – could be prioritized more. Consequently, even if the making of vaccines was proven to be a remarkable triumph for scientists, hesitancy regarding vaccines and equitable distribution must be considered essential issues in the long run to end the pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic only emphasizes that eliminating a population health framework is crucial in the healthcare system that will address the issue long after the crisis. The framework stresses the approach that focuses on actively preventing the situation, where the population group is the main target of such efforts, not people only when sick (Galea & Keyes, 2020). Meanwhile, health systems committed to the population health approach can handle the social conditions that influence health, promote health equity, and contribute to the community’s resistance against future health crises. It means working with public health agencies, community groups and other resource people to form novel strategies that meet the interests of the existing and new population groups. With a preventive and interventional approach and narrowing down the existing health differences, healthcare systems can raise the outcomes of their populations and increase the community’s resilience to future threats.
On the other hand, COVID-19 has placed the population’s most significant concern at the Centre of the healthcare agenda as a way of solving such complex health challenges. Adopting a technology-integrated approach in equitably distributing the vaccines and encompassing a population health framework can help healthcare systems be more responsive to the community they serve, mitigating the effect of any future crisis. However, ensuring people get their share of the care is as essential as promoting vaccine acceptance and cooperation among different sectors to achieve the best possible outcome for the population’s health in reshaping healthcare.
References
Galea, S., & Keyes, K. (2020). Understanding the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of population health science. American Journal of Epidemiology, 189(11), 1232-1237.
Navaratnam, A. M., O’Callaghan, C., Beale, S., Nguyen, V., Aryee, A., Braithwaite, I., … & Johnson, A. M. (2024). Eyeglasses and risk of COVID-19 transmission—analysis of the Virus Watch Community Cohort study. International Journal of Infectious Diseases, 139, 28-33.
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