If 2020 was the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic downturn, high unemployment rates, and social distancing, 2021 still has challenges of its own. These challenges are no more evident than in the population health sector. If some people were under the impression that most of these challenges would disappear once the year of the pandemic was over, these illusions were quickly dispelled once it became clear the number of public health challenges people, governments, and health authorities have to deal with.

Dr. Zenobia Brown, MD, MPH is a strategic healthcare senior executive and healthcare administrator based in New York, New York. Her key strengths include leveraging her clinical, technology, and operations background to design solutions and programs that elevate clinical outcomes, optimize financial performance, and catapult the quality of care. As a business-minded, board-certified MD and MPH with experience providing hands-on care for people and populations from infancy through end of life, Dr. Brown is passionate about developing and executing population health strategies across large, integrated healthcare enterprises. Her clinical service models focus on quality, financial sustainability, and attaining data-driven outcomes.

Social Inequities

According to healthcare administrator Dr. Zenobia Brown, the coronavirus pandemic has revealed the glaring social inequities in society, especially in relation to population health. Rather than being just a social problem, discrimination against minority groups in the U.S. as well as other countries all over the world was also a public health crisis.

For all of its drawbacks, the pandemic helped put social inequities under the spotlight and forced governments, public health officials, and medical societies to face the issue. The ramifications of COVID-19 put the issue of the embedded inequality in society on the table for discussion. The challenge now is to translate the discussion into actionable strategies. The year 2021 holds an opportunity to turn the social energy into focused action to transform population health for the better.

The Role of the Government

It’s no secret that the role of the government in public health has diminished over the years. In the U.S., monitoring and implementing population health policies has increasingly become the responsibility of the states and cities as the federal government assumed a more passive role. But that all changed when a public health crisis hit the nation and everyone looked at the federal government for help.

The way Dr. Zenobia Brown of New York, New York, sees it, the role of data driven population health is vital in informing our Public Health approaches not just during a pandemic but in normal times as well. Population Health informatics can provide needed information about what communities are most likely to benefit from specific interventions and the most successful ways to implement those strategies. That can be everything from determining areas of low vaccination to strategies to deliver those very same treatments.

Virtual Health

The term “virtual health” gained popularity and became a household name much like the “new normal” and other buzzwords that were a byproduct of the pandemic. With in-person consulting still limited for many patients, virtual health remains an important tool in managing the health of large populations. This is especially true for populations who might specifically be avoiding exposure to COVID-19 and other viruses.

Despite very high levels of utilization during the pandemic, there remain challenges to continue to integrate telehealth into the healthcare system. One challenge is that both practices and patients have different levels of comfort using new technologies. Completing an online physical assessment is a new skill set that many providers will need education and training to attain. Patient access to broadband and computer literacy, will also play a role and continue to pose challenges in the virtual health experience. Despite these challenges, this remains one of the more exciting opportunities to further population health initiatives in 2021.

The Supply Chain

According to Dr. Zenobia Brown, if 2020 was the year of the pandemic, 2021 promises to be the year of the vaccine. But with more vaccines being approved by the FDA, the logistics of getting those vaccines from the production facilities to people’s arms is proving to be a major challenge. Even before the rollout of the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines, disruptions in the supply chain were a big concern for the drug industry and health officials alike.

Although troubling, the high demand for vaccine supply is an encouraging indicator. Whether it’s onshore manufacturing or offshore supply, distribution logistics, or talent management, the supply chain is always threatened if not aggressively managed. In 2021 we will be looking at industry to utilize data, analytics, AI driven modeling in order to meet the challenges of healthcare supply chain.

Dr. Zenobia Brown on the COVID-19 Legacy

As governments and public health leaders grapple with the immediate aftermath of a widespread pandemic and the unprecedented effort to vaccinate the global population, it becomes evident that COVID-19 will impact the health sector for many years to come. Dr. Zenobia Brown sees both challenges and opportunities based on our experiences of 2020. From facing social inequality and discrimination, the role of the federal government in conducting and supervising major health functions, the exapnsion of new technologies in healthcare delivery and the deployment novel medical treatments, the road ahead is both promising and challenging. It will take dedication and commitment from everyone involved to see humanity safely through this current as well as future health crises.