This is a press release from St. Luke’s Medical Center College of Medicine-William H. Quasha Memorial.

As part of its “The Future of Health” conversation series, the St. Luke’s Medical Center College of Medicine-William H. Quasha Memorial, through its new Planetary and Global Health Program, will hold its fifth episode entitled “The Future of the Hospital” on Wednesday, June 9, 4 pm to 5:30 pm Manila time.

Hospitals are a crucial component of healthcare systems – a fact dramatically highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the pandemic began, hospitals in the Philippines and around the world have been stretched to their limits, as seen in long waiting lines, dwindling resources, and overworked personnel. However, these problems are mere symptoms of chronic challenges already faced by hospitals prior to the pandemic. 

Hospitals are also complex institutions to govern, with many moving parts that need to work in sync to deliver quality, safe, and affordable healthcare. There has also been a wide gap among hospitals, ranging from private technologically advanced facilities to those lacking in basic amenities in remote areas. 

There has also been a longstanding criticism against hospital-centric health systems with resources skewed more towards cure rather than prevention. COVID-19 has undoubtedly driven many changes in the way hospitals operate, but the pandemic – along with other emerging trends in disease burden, healthcare technology, and social and environmental change – is also driving new conversations and offering novel visions about the hospital of the future.

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This new series, which adopts an innovative conversation format, convenes health leaders from the Philippines and abroad to not only examine the current health situation but also envision the future of health in the post-coronavirus era, with the hope of advancing health policy discourse in the Philippines and globally.

For this fifth webinar, the health leaders will share their diagnosis as well as their prognosis of issues faced by hospitals and healthcare systems in the country and across the world. The panelists include: 

•  Dr. Arturo de la Peña – President and chief executive officer, St. Luke’s Medical Center
• Dr. Agnes Binagwaho – Vice chancellor, University of Global Health Equity and former Minister of Health, Rwanda
• Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala – Board member, Philippine Alliance of Patient Organizations and vice president, Cancer Coalition of the Philippines
• Professor Valéry Ridde – Director of Public Health Research, Centre Population et Développement/Research Institute for Sustainable Development/University of Paris, France and Institut de Santé et Développement/Universite Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegal
• Dr. Aileen Espina – Member, Healthcare Professionals Alliance Against COVID-19 and former chief, Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center
• Sonia Roschnik – International climate policy director, Health Care Without Harm

The conversation will be moderated by Dr. Renzo Guinto, associate professor of the Practice of Global Public Health and inaugural director of the Planetary and Global Health Program of the St. Luke’s Medical Center College of Medicine-William H. Quasha Memorial.

The event is open to the public. Register at http://bit.ly/stlukesfutureofthehospital. 

The webinar series is co-presented by the Department of Health; Rappler; Harvard Club of the Philippines; Zuellig Family Foundation; University of Asia & the Pacific School of Law and Governance; Development Academy of the Philippines Graduate School of Public and Development Management; Management Association of the Philippines; Philippine Futures Thinking Society; Philippine Society for Public Health Physicians; Philippine Alliance of Patient Organizations; Center for Engaged Foresight; Health Justice; PH Lab; Likhaan Center for Women’s Health Inc.; Asian Center for Drug Policy; Health Care Without Harm; Civika Asian Development Academy; Southeast Asia Climate and Health Alliance; Healthy Philippines Alliance; and Asian Medical Students Association-Philippines. – Rappler.com