Beyond Covid 19 Pandemic Book

COVID offers chance for patient-centered healthcare change, new book argues. A solutions-based, scientific, and data-driven approach to the concept of ‘healthcare for all’ is explored in a new book that looks at the future of healthcare beyond the coronavirus global health crisis.A solutions-based, scientific and data-driven approach to the concept of ‘healthcare for all’ is explored in a new book that looks at the future of healthcare beyond the coronavirus global health crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated in stark terms how ill-prepared existing public policy and healthcare systems were to deal with the challenges of providing quality and affordable patient services. In their new book, Beyond the COVID-19 pandemic: Envisioning a better world by transforming the future of healthcare, authors Ambassador Pradeep K Kapur and Dr Joseph M Chalil present SafetyNet, a ‘healthcare for all’ policy that challenges the world to enable political consensus to create meaningful change for all – both in the United States and worldwide. The book asks the questions: what if it’s not reform we need, but instead a revolution? And what if we re-imagined a healthcare system with patients, not big pharma and insurance companies, in the driver’s seat? Their “grand plan” acknowledges that advances in and the adoption of new technology will revolutionise the field of healthcare, and they offer critical strategies that countries can adopt during natural disasters, wars, or pandemics. The emerging world order, as envisioned by the authors, addresses healthcare needs, education, and sustainable lifestyle choices, reducing the need for more intensive and costly interventions to improve overall quality of life. They go on to suggest a roadmap that goes beyond just reform. Ambassador Pradeep K Kapur has enjoyed a distinguished career working with leaders and policy makers around the world. He was Ambassador of India to Chile and to Cambodia, as well as Secretary at the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. His healthcare contributions include setting up the bilateral India Nepal initiative, the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences. A graduate of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D), he is executive director of the Smart Village Development Fund (SVDF) of the Wheels Global Foundation. His co-author, Dr Joseph M Chalil, is chair of the Complex Health Systems Advisory Board, H Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, and a member of the Dr Kiran C Patel College of Allopathic Medicine’s Executive Leadership Council. A veteran of the US Navy Medical Corps, he is board certified in healthcare management and was awarded a fellowship by the American College of Healthcare Executives. Considered an expert in US healthcare policy, he is a strong advocate for patient-centred care. Paying tribute to their work, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the revered spiritual and humanitarian leader, says: “This book makes a comprehensive study of all aspects that have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic while proposing practical ways to deal with those challenges. I congratulate the authors Ambassador Pradeep Kapur and Dr Joseph Chalil on offering such penetrating insight towards the current situation and also providing clarity on the way forward.”

SALUS Global

Andrew Sansom

Time to radically revamp the American health care system in light of the flawed response to the Covid-19 pandemic and many other dysfunctions, argues this sweeping manifesto. Kapur, a public policy professor at the University of Maryland College Park, and debut author Chalil, a physician and chairman of the Indo American Press Club, start by noting medical difficulties faced by the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic. These include shortages of masks, personal protective equipment, and ventilators; mass layoffs that caused people to lose their insurance; and bankruptcies among some hospitals that suspended elective procedures to make way for virus cases. They continue with a wide-ranging critique of American medicine, spotlighting its higher costs and poorer health outcomes compared to other developed countries; the lack of accessibility of needy and uninsured patients; shortages of hospitals, doctors, and nurses; and the pressure on providers to improve profits by cutting corners and to defend against malpractice suits with unnecessary tests. To remedy these problems, the authors propose a “Grand Plan To Restructure Healthcare in the U.S.” with a mix of public provisions and market-based competition. They envision a “SafetyNet” of public county hospitals providing basic care to all regardless of insurance or ability to pay. A second system of private hospitals, providers, and insurance, funded by “Enhanced Health Savings Accounts,” would run in parallel and compete in price and quality in a national and global market, with medical services advertised like groceries, complete with coupons. Other plan features include a unitary electronic medical record, caps on malpractice damages, a Comprehensive Consumer Healthcare Score that awards points for healthy lifestyles that could lower insurance rates, initiatives to train more health care professionals, a National Strategic Healthcare Reserve of emergency supplies, and new technologies, from online diagnosis to medical robots. Kapur and Chalil present their case for far-reaching reforms of American health care in lucid prose that has an incisive bite. (“Calling it a healthcare system is a misnomer. It is a disease-care system, one that focuses on diagnosing and treating symptoms instead of taking on the job of educating individuals and families to take a proactive approach to their health.”) But the book suffers from a meandering, repetitive structure and an occasional lack of focus and rigor; it pursues tangents that some readers may consider dubious, like a brief for traditional Indian ayurvedic healing as an adjunct to Western medicine; and it sometimes gets facts wrong. (The 1918 Spanish flu did not kill “a third of the world’s population”—mortality was between 1% and 6%—and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson did not “support a herd immunity theory until he was hospitalized with the COVID-19 virus”; he imposed a national lockdown to prevent contagion on March 20, 2020, seven days before he tested positive.) The authors’ plan is something of a hodgepodge, with myriad moving parts to achieve many disparate goals, and it’s hazy on some important points, like the costs and funding mechanisms of the public SafetyNet hospitals. Still, Kapur and Chalil manage to steer clear of the dogmas of the right and left to offer a thoughtful, cogent analysis of the manifold problems in the U.S. health care establishment and a wealth of concrete proposals for dealing with them. A detailed and innovative blueprint for fixing what ails American medicine

Kirkus Reviews

“The book encapsulates the policy and technology realms lucidly. It presents a unique yet simple model that can be tailored to suit countries worldwide and better equip us all to deal with such pandemics in the future. A body of work that presents a ray of hope for the future, this book is a must read for healthcare professionals, policymakers, technopreneurs, leaders, administrators, and citizens alike.”

Amitabh Kant, IAS

CEO of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog). A policy think tank of the Government of India, chaired by the Prime Minister of India.

“Some books inspire you to think differently, but this book does more than just inspire. It offers a clear path to build a new future for healthcare. The lessons within are powerful and meant to change the direction of healthcare in this country and around the world. I invite you to explore, dream big, and get inspired by Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic: Envisioning a Better World by Transforming the Future of Healthcare.”

Raymond Aaron

New York Times Best Selling Author

“Ambassador Kapur and Dr. Chalil understand that providing affordable, high-quality healthcare is a global challenge. Their Grand Plan stretches beyond the borders of the U.S. and includes countries where the United Nations and the WHO have struggled to achieve their healthcare-related missions. The authors offer strategies that countries can use to better navigate COVID-19, as well as future pandemics and other natural disasters. One of the greatest lessons from the pandemic is that we need bold visions for a better healthcare future. Ambassador Kapur and Dr. Chalil’s Grand Plan offers us a roadmap. It’s worth your time to consider their ideas and proposals.”

Peter H. Diamandis, MD

Named by Fortune as one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders,” founder and executive chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation, which leads the world in designing and operating large-scale incentive competitions. Executive Founder, Singularity University, Silicon Valley, an institution that counsels world’s leaders on exponential technologies.

“In Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic, Envisioning a Better World by Transforming the Future of Healthcare, Ambassador Pradeep Kapur and Dr. Joseph Chalil, leaders in their respective fields, not only offer a comprehensive history of this pandemic, but a concrete roadmap to prevent a future catastrophe of this nature. The authors have provided a comprehensive plan that would ensure that healthcare, not just in pandemics, but in general, would be available to all citizens irrespective of zip code, economic status, gender, race, or ethnicity. This book should be read carefully and by every politician in every country around the globe. The solutions they offer aren’t ‘silver bullets,’ and they won’t be easy to implement. Most of all, they will take political will and a commitment to leadership.

Ambassador Charles Ray

Author, former U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Republic of Zimbabwe, first U.S. Consul General to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

“The timely release of the book, Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic: Envisioning a Better World by Transforming the Future of Healthcare, by Ambassador Pradeep Kapur and Dr. Joseph Chalil, fills a huge vacuum. The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) is proud of Dr. Chalil, an active member of AAPI, who has joined with Ambassador Kapur to analyze the current situation and provide meaningful solutions for healthcare that are effective, affordable, and available to all. We encourage you to contemplate the stimulating thoughts of Ambassador Pradeep Kapur and Dr. Joseph Chalil.”