Population Health and Health Services: Old Challenges and New Realities in the COVID-19 Era

Abstract

(1) Background: Health services that were already under pressure before the COVID-19 pandemic to maximize its impact on population health, have not only the imperative to remain resilient and sustainable and be prepared for future waves of the virus, but to take advantage of the learnings from the pandemic to re-configure and support the greatest possible improvements. (2) Methods: A review of articles published by the Special Issue on Population Health and Health Services to identify main drivers for improving the contribution of health services on population health is conducted. (3) Health services have to focus not just on providing the best care to health problems but to improve its focus on health promotion and disease prevention. (4) Conclusions: Implementing innovative but complex solutions to address the problems can hardly be achieved without a multilevel and multisectoral deliberative debate. The CHRODIS PLUS policy dialog method can help standardize policy-making procedures and improve network governance, offering a proven method to strengthen the impact of health services on population health, which in the post-COVID era is more necessary than ever.

Perinatal mental health and women's lived experience of the COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping review of the qualitative literature 2020-2021

“…Whilst compulsory lockdowns and physical distancing regulations are being repealed across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic still cannot be spoken about in past-tense. In many settings, women may still have to self-isolate if they or their family members are unwell during pregnancy/postpartum, and health services across the world are still under intense pressure due to the additional burden of the pandemic( Sarría-Santamera et al, 2021 ). Therefore, the findings of this review highlight how the known risk of low levels of social support to women's perinatal health are exacerbated by additional requirements to isolate, although “silver linings” that are protective to mental health were identified.…”

Public Health Response Measures for COVID-19 in Kazakhstan

“…Digital technologies are of particular importance during the COVID-19 pandemic, combining the potential to improve surveillance and combat epidemics, mainly by expanding information coverage, increasing the speed of information transfer, quickly tracking cases, and predicting the epidemiological situation. 5–8…”

“…Digital technologies are of particular importance during the COVID-19 pandemic, combining the potential to improve surveillance and combat epidemics, mainly by expanding information coverage, increasing the speed of information transfer, quickly tracking cases, and predicting the epidemiological situation. [5][6][7][8] In this regard, the Electronic Integrated Disease Surveillance System (EIDSS) operating based on the National Center of Public Healthcare is an information system that allows to strengthen and provide support for monitoring and prevention of diseases within the framework of the "One Healthcare" concept.…”

Data-Driven Analytics Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in the Era of COVID-19: An Insightful Review of Recent Developments

“…Besides these technical developments, researchers are emphasizing the need for research in COVID19-induced brain dysfunction (CIBD) to improve the mental health of large populations of infected/uninfected individuals [288]. Despite these highlighted areas and developments, AI's role in COVID-19 and post COVID-19 era can offer a proven method to further strengthen the impact of healthcare services/applications on population health, which is more necessary than ever in the post-COVID era [289][290][291][292]. To this end, further developments are needed to lower the effects of this pandemic and to serve mankind effectively in these unanticipated and challenging times.…”