Nothing brings healthcare stakeholders together like a pandemic – from a speedy vaccine rollout to setting up telehealth platforms within weeks, providers, payers and the pharmaceutical industry had to work together to weather the changes brought on by COVID-19.
So what’s next for these healthcare industry partnerships when the pandemic is over? In the HIMSS21 Digital panel, What’s Next: Payer-Provider-Pharma Relationships in a Post-Pandemic Landscape, Dr. Shantanu Nundy, chief medical officer at Accolade, and Saira Haque, senior director for clinical informatics at Pfizer, discuss how the pandemic has changed partnerships and what the industry can learn from the past year.
VACCINE ROLLOUT
Nundy found it was powerful for different healthcare stakeholders to band together around one ambitious target: getting shots in arms, a goal that’s still underway. Nearly half of Americans are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
If the industry can collaborate around the development and distribution of a vaccine, it’s possible to target other health goals, like reducing blood pressure, said Nundy.
For Haque, collaboration wasn’t new for many healthcare industry players. But the vaccine rollout was a different animal.
“I think what was different this time was the degree of collaboration and where it spanned,” Haque said. “It was in every phase, from vaccine development through manufacturing, rollout, and of course getting all the relevant approvals, and finally to distribution and administration.”