Abstract
Dear scholars and readers of HSMR, with this summer issue 2023 we conclude to publish works with had in our pipeline related to COVID 19. Yet we are more than happy to host any further contributions related to managerial and organizational implications due to COVID. Even if the pandemic seems to be under control or at least we can live with it without the dramatic consequences we experienced in early stages, its consequences on health systems are still very visible and deep. So, we better not be caught off-guard.
Yet, another pandemic is ongoing.
Many NHS (UK, Italy, France, Portugal etc.) and many other mixed health systems (East Europe, Latin America, East Asia etc.) are struggling as ever before in fulfilling their mission. Health professionals are deeply affected by the stress generated by the last 3 years of massive work, technology that could revolutionize the way we deliver healthcare is not diffusing as expected, and even if healthcare is advancing in quality and quantity at the same time inequalities are growing and public expectations not met. In many NHS public expenditures are not sufficient to guarantee essential levels of care and citizens are increasingly unsatisfied.
In this light it is commonly recognised that we need to re-think deep and wide the ways we deliver health services, through new governance arrangements (public-private partnership, public consortium acting under private rules and laws, etc.), new service designs (technology, co-creation and co-production, virtual care, AI, etc.), new roles and responsibilities (task shifting, new professionals, etc.). Only a revolution in health services creation and delivery will help us to say “no one will be left behind”.
As EiC of HSMR I would love to see more research on these themes. I’d love to see research that can help to conceptualize and disseminate what really innovative is taking place in different systems. Really innovative, not relatively innovative. I’d love to publish article that analyse and compare transformations on going in different NHS or health systems, yet converging toward common solutions and addressing similar issues. I’d love to see research that do not speak only to academics or is pushed by the publish or perish pressure, but research that is drive by the will to be influential on decision-makers, helpful for health managers, inspiring for clinical leaders.
Please, do it. Because not to leave anyone behind is the legacy we expect from modern, developed, value-based NHS and health systems. That is why we need strong, robust, reliable and impactful research on health management matters. Embedded in real life. Right on the edge of innovation. Actionable.
Please do it. Just do it.
I wish to all authors and readers of HSMR a wonderful summer ‘23.