We Need a Combination of Approaches to Evaluate Health System Resilience; Comment on “Re-evaluating Our Knowledge of Health System Resilience During COVID-19: Lessons From the First Two Years of the Pandemic

Document Type : Commentary

Authors

1 European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

2 European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK

3 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK

Abstract

Health system resilience has become a desirable health system attribute in the current permacrisis environment. The article by Saulnier and colleagues reviews the literature on health system resilience and refines the concept, pinpointing dimensions of resilience governance that have not reached consensus, or that are missing from the literature. In this commentary we complement the findings by discussing different conceptual frameworks for understanding resilience and introducing resilience testing, a method to assess health system resilience using a hypothetical shock scenario. Resilience testing is a mixed-methods approach that combines a review of existing data with a structured workshop, where health system experts collaboratively assess the resilience of their health system. The new method is proposed as a tool for policy-making, as the results can identify attributes of the current health system that may hinder or boost a resilient response to the next crisis.

Keywords

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 30 April 2024
  • Revise Date: 21 June 2024
  • Accept Date: 06 July 2024
  • First Publish Date: 07 July 2024

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