Talking Healthcare

In this special episode of the IHF's Talking Healthcare podcast series, participants in the IHF's Young Executive Leaders 2022 programme explore how international health organizations can facilitate the access of refugees to healthcare services.

“At a time when 1 in every 88 people on earth has been forced to flee, we all believe that providing support when these crises happen and, afterwards, facilitating refugees’ access to healthcare services is more important than ever.”

This episode was developed by Dina El-Maghraby (Saudi German Health Egypt and North Africa), Giulia Petrarulo (Unicancer France), Vanessa Ribeiro (Portugal), Mohamed Ameen (Saudi German Hospital Cairo), and Kean Villarta (Children’s Health System of Texas).

The healthcare workforce is the cornerstone of the health system in every country and are dependent on the availability, accessibility, and quality of healthcare workers to reach the highest standards of health provision.

In this episode, Linda Clark, Director sat down with Professor Henriette Neumeyer and discussed healthcare workforce-- sharing insights into the scale of the problem, and the types of solutions that can be found.

About the Speakers:

Prof Henriette Neumeyer

Linda Clark

The 45th IHF World Hospital Congress is a unique global forum that brings together IHF Members and leaders of hospitals, health services, and healthcare organizations. Providing an invaluable networking opportunity for leaders in healthcare, the themes chosen for each congress focus on the biggest trends and common issues in the sector.

Expert-led sessions are complemented by workshops, breakouts, scientific posters, and exhibitors from across the industry. It’s a hive of knowledge exchange, collaboration, and innovation – a chance to gather our international community to focus on what healthcare leaders can learn from each other to improve service delivery at home.

For this episode, Dr Farida, chair of the Scientific Committee, invited members of the Scientific Committee to share their experience working together on the formulation of the Congress program. Dr Abdullatif and Ryan also shared their expectations for the upcoming congress.

Dr. Farida AlKhaja

Dr. Abdullatif Saad Alokifi

Ryan Keiler

Violence against healthcare has been a recurrent problem over the years across the globe. The COVID-19 pandemic has appeared to worsen the situation, with a documented increase of incidents in many countries

Since 2015 the International Hospital Federation is strongly involved in the Healthcare in Danger initiative of the International Movement of the Red Cross and Red Crescent advocating for the safety of health personnel and protection of healthcare around the globe.

Robyn, Ana and Paul sat down to disucss how we can resolve violence in healthcare.

About the Speakers:

Ana Elisa Barbar

Dr. Robyn Begley

Paul Sarnese

One of the biggest ‘service shifts’ in the healthcare sector since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the widespread adoption of telehealth. As well as being a viable option to provide continuity of care and treatment to patients during the coronavirus pandemic, telehealth has transformed how health systems can respond to chronic workforce shortages and optimise their clinical capacities.

So for our first Talking Healthcare podcast in 2022, we have invited Sharon Allen and Dr. Amit Tahkker to discuss the challenges and opportunities of telehealth for Africa’s diverse healthcare systems.

About the Speakers:

Sharon Allen, Co-founder and Executive Director of World Telehealth Initiative (WTI)

Dr. Amit N. Thakker, President of the Africa Healthcare Federation

On March 16th, the IHF and the African Healthcare Federation will host a joint webinar examining how telehealth can be harnessed in healthcare systems in Africa to address disparities of care access and medical expertise.

So our first Talking Healthcare podcast in 2022, we’ll diving into the challenges and opportunities of telehealth for Africa’s diverse healthcare systems.

COVID-19 created tremendous pressure on health systems across the world, leading policy-makers to offer hospitals new flexibilities for digital health to fill gaps in capacity. This episode features the CEO of Digital Healthcare at Aster DM Healthcare, a global health system spanning India and the Middle East region. Listeners will learn about Aster's efforts to internalize digital processes (e.g. administration, operation) and external services (e.g. virtual ICUs, virtual prescription refills) during the COVID-19 pandemic. This episode will also offer insights about the role of public-private partnerships in digital health, the cost and infrastructure requirements for implementation, and trends in innovation in both the Asia and Gulf regions.

Guest: Brandon Rowberry

On March 11th, 2020 a global pandemic was declared. Almost overnight, people went from buzzing around cities to staying in their own homes, under lockdown. Many worldwide healthcare systems mandated the cancellation of non-essential or elective services and most healthcare organizations pivoted to virtual care options, where possible. Maple is a Canadian telehealth company that predates the pandemic but experienced monumental growth as a result of it. This episode details Maple’s services, the telehealth landscape in Canada, and discusses how recent circumstances have nudged the Canadian government to evolve its universal coverage policy to enable better access to virtual healthcare.

Guest: Lana Majid

More information: www.getmaple.ca

COVID-19 disrupted operations at hospitals across the world, requiring managers to rapidly implement new digital tools and transformations to support changes in system operations and service delivery. This episode offers insights about how the Cleveland Clinic—a global health system with facilities in the US, UK, UAE, and Canada—implemented “years worth of automation and digitization in just 2 weeks”. Listeners will hear from the Cleveland Clinic’s enterprise Chief Information Officer, who will describe the system’s experience transitioning to virtual care, offer best practices for designing and implementing system-level changes in IT, and identify key post-pandemic trends in digital health and health care innovation.

Guest: Matt Kull

More information: https://www.intelligentautomation.network/transformation/articles/digital-transformation-by-fire

Most countries put forth significant efforts to identify positive COVID-19 cases, recommend quarantine practices, and aim to flatten infection curves in an effort to keep hospital intensive care units afloat.  But what happens to the people who contracted COVID-19 but then recovered from the illness? This episode describes Post-Covid Care Clinics in Portugal. Digital technologies such as wearable devices for telemonitoring and telehealth solutions allowed clinicians in Portugal to undertake integrated follow-up of COVID-19 survivors - an innovation that is certain to shed light on what kind of medical care may be necessary in the coming years.  

Guest: Miguel Rico