MAPping the Future

An article that came out in FORTUNE appears to foretell the disruption that has started – and will gain momentum in the future. Who among us would have imagined that “the new path to a six-figure salary will no longer require a college degree?” Where will this leave the colleges and universities? How will the academe remain relevant – and more importantly, how will education morph?

 

The answers to these questions will not be easy because they will entail major changes in what is and what was. Industries are being disrupted, ignited by the measures undertaken to contain the pandemic. The many subjects, that form part of the curriculum implemented to get students ready for employment, may not even be applicable anymore with the transforming and restructuring being done as an offshoot of the crisis.

 

The health industry is at the center of these storms as the inadequacies of the health systems surfaced in this crisis. We thought that we were making tremendous progress in health care until we were stopped on our tracks by this small speck of a virus. The health industry is part of a world that was conditioned to think treatment rather than prevention; where disease protocols are focused on the body systems rather than in the patients as individuals with different needs and circumstances; where technology is pursued regardless of the cost, and where life gets extension without regard for the quality of living. This is an industry that only measured patient’s outcomes while in the care system, rather than adding value to the communities where facilities operate by improving population health.

 

COVID-19 is changing our health realities. Groaning under the weight of the care burden now, we need to reconstruct the health system into one that will be more sturdy, resilient, and agile if we are to be prepared for disaster and other crisis in the future. We do want to see our world stop turning – ever again.

 

The lockdowns, social distancing and other measures imposed to contain the spread of the infection have accelerated the adoption of major trends we used to just tiptoe around with – among them:

 

• Digital health is here to stay. The use of telehealth, telemedicine, web consultations, contact tracing, health data analytics – modalities resisted by practitioners and other health professionals so long until that choice had been taken away.
• Health consumers active in their own care. Because hospitals and other health providers became inaccessible, people are now more conscious of prevention and started to learn self-care. Expect patients to participate in health decisions now more actively and this will force the health industry to become more person-centered, personalized, and transparent.
• Communication and messaging are critical to health care. The pandemic spawned infodemic – and that means the health sector will need to counter these by providing rational and fact-based information to the patients/health consumers.
• The cost structure will change as patients will want higher quality service that is accessible, affordable, and available.

 

The health delivery system will be reconfigured. The traditional health equation has always been health care is sick care, is hospital care. The fear of hospitals now will hopefully signal a shift to what should be – accessing health care at facilities and with providers according to the level of patients’ care needs. That means:

 

• More focus on prevention rather than cure, more primary care than hospital care;

 

• Integrated delivery networks that service holistically rather than in fragmented parts;

 

• From large academic medical centers to community and population health;

 

• From physician-centered care to multi-disciplinary teams supported by special skills in a continuum of care that happens in multiple settings.

 

Therefore, the health care workforce will have to likewise transform to be in step with these trends that will require new skills, even new health professions. The shortages being experienced now is a signal of the need to recalibrate skills and allow the entry of new players to augment the health system requirements.

 

The education sector will feel the most impact in these shifts. On the educators will fall the responsibility of preparing the students – the next generation – how to live, survive and thrive in a radically changed world. That is a challenge because who can even say they understand the world now – much more start teach the hows and whys? One thing is certain – the way education is being delivered must undergo structural change to rise to the call of the times, starting with adopting a more liberal mindset.

 

On the flipside, these challenges will also unlock potential opportunities for the education sector to help, rather than hinder the flow that can no longer be stemmed. Where and how?

 

Heading the list will be public health – a top global agenda that the academe should prepare for because reforms will certainly be instituted. We will see health systems decentralized to enhance containment capabilities. That means rural communities will need help through simple/basic training for self-care to lessen the burden to the health system. The academe can work with LGUs in providing these in a less structured, more progressive ways that will help skill building and promote lifelong learning. Equivalency is an idea whose time has come.

 

It is also way past time to introduce in curricula across levels and industries well-care, and treat prevention and maintenance of health as equally important as curative care.  This need is highlighted with the rise of mental health issues. When students join the work force, the burden is shifted to the employers to worry about their mental health – and many times, they are not even work-related.

 

Ways must be explored to bring in alternative health care into the system, such as the initiatives of providing herbal medicines as cheaper drug choice. This was successfully undertaken by the likes of Dr. Krisana Kraisintu, and models are available on how to replicate them. Communities will benefit from these, both as providers and consumers of the products, but it will need the support of pharmacists and doctors like her to train them. How can the academe recognize and formalize these in the rural setting?

 

Discussions have already started about the aging populations, especially in the Asia Pacific region.  What courses can we now design to get students trained for this emerging challenge and its various complications?  Studies are showing that while people are living longer, the extended years have not resulted in better quality of life. There are a lot of opportunities here for short and full courses, in areas such as providing care for Alzheimer’s, chronic dementia and other conditions associated with aging.

 

The universities and colleges need also to expand their market from that of the traditional ones. The WFH, the new protocols, the changed industry practices – these require new skill sets from the current workforce, and more urgently at that. Upskilling and reskilling them, and steering them to new directions in their careers are as important as the students who are now learning online. Bringing those already employed back into the fold to re-educate them will not only help alleviate adjustment problems –it can become a potentially productive market niche.

 

For sure, there is a lot of hard work to be done. Re-learning is also a requirement for those who teach. Educators will need an investment of time, patience, and curiosity, boosted by fearlessness and passion to be right fit for these new requirements. Educational and regulatory institutions should not kill these by the lethal combination of inflexibility, rigid structures, status quo, and the spirits that no longer want to discover new frontiers.

 

Our collective future depends on how well the educational system question and disrupt its own familiar structures that served us for centuries – and initiate the changes that will enable the next-gen education, welcome hybrid and alternative learning systems, make space for out-of-the-box thinking and innovation, take steps to be partners in upskilling, reskilling and retooling the present and future workforce, and acknowledge that the best education we can give to our students will lie not only in finding the answers, but in asking the questions – because then, innovations follow.

 

If we do our jobs right, we will pave the way for a generation that will be members of a health community that work seamlessly in providing quality and responsive health care to the population.

 

(The author is Vice Chair of the MAP Health Committee, Chair of the MAP CEO Conference Committee, President and CEO of Health Solutions Corporation, and former Undersecretary of the Department of Tourism.)