COVID-19-An Opportunity to Redesign Health Policy Thinking

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) dramatically unveiled the fragile state of the world's health and social systems - the lack of emergency health crisis preparedness (under-resourced, weak leadership, strategic plans without clear lines of authority), siloed policy frameworks (focus on individual diseases and the lack of integration of health into the whole of societal activity and its impact on individual as well as community well-being and prosperity), and unclear communication (misguided rationale of policies, inconsistent interpretation of data). The net result is fear - about the disease, about risks and survival, and about economic security. We discuss the interdependencies among these domains and their emergent dynamics and emphasise the need for a robust distributed health system and for transparent communication as the basis for trust in the system. We conclude that systems thinking and complexity sciences should inform the redesign of strong health systems urgently to respond to the current health crisis and over time to build healthy, resilient, and productive communities. Keywords: Systems Thinking, Complex Adaptive Systems, Design Thinking, Health Policy Design, COVID-19, Pandemics Copyright: (c) 2020 The Author(s); Published by Kerman University of Medical Sciences. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Citation: Sturmberg JP, Tsasis P, Hoemeke L. COVID-19 - an opportunity to redesign health policy thinking. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2020;x(x):x-x. doi:10.34172/ijhpm.2020.132

Automated summary

COVID-19 has highlighted the vulnerable state of global health and social systems, calling for enhanced emergency health crisis preparedness, integrated policy frameworks, and clear communication. It is essential to establish a robust distributed health system and transparent communication to build trust in the system. Additionally, systems thinking and complexity sciences should inform the redesign of strong health systems to address the current health crisis and create healthy, resilient, and productive communities.