Contributor(s): Dr Lucy Kanya, Dr Matthias Wismar, Dr Josep Figueras |

COVID-19 has presented an opportunity to address some of the profound underlying problems of our health systems. We compare international health system responses to COVID-19, and outline clear lessons from the pandemic on how we might move forward.

Meet our speakers and chair

Update, Friday 5 March: Professor Elias Mossialos is no longer speaking at this event due to unforeseen circumstances

Josep Figueras is the Director and co-founder of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. In addition to WHO, he has served major multilateral agencies such as the European Commission and the World Bank, and has worked as a policy advisor in more than 40 countries in the European Region and beyond. He is a member of several governing, advisory and editorial boards, including the governance board of the European Health Forum Gastein.

Dr Matthias Wismar (@matthiaswismar) is Programme Manager at the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. He is leading, managing and developing studies and face-to-face dissemination and knowledge brokering events. Matthias has worked extensively on COVID-19 health systems responses and governance. Since October 2020, he has led a weekly COVID-19 response webinar discussing a wide range of health systems responses to the pandemic. He holds a doctorate in political science from Goethe University, Frankfurt (Germany).

Lucy Kanya (@Lucy_Kanya) is Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at the LSE Department of Health Policy. Her research interests include: the economics of health care financing in low and middle income countries, private sector engagement in health and the use of stated preference techniques. Lucy is currently part of the LSE team working on the African Health Observatory – Platform on Health Systems and Policies (AHOP).

Justin Parkhurst (@justinparkhurst) is an Associate Professor of Global Health Policy in the LSE Department of Health Policy. He is co-director of the MSc in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing programme, and the current serving Chair of the LSE Global Health Initiative.

More about this event

This event is part of the LSE Festival: Shaping the Post-COVID World running from Monday 1 to Saturday 6 March 2021, with a series of events exploring the direction the world could and should be taking after the crisis and how social science research can shape it.

The Department of Health Policy (@LSEHealthPolicy) trains and inspires people passionate about health by advancing and challenging their understanding of health systems and the social, economic and political contexts in which they operate.

Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival