Equity in healthcare, while a fundamental human right, not everyone has access to it

LLYC’s global Healthcare team launches the third issue of its What’s Up Health platform, focusing on “Equity in Healthcare”. This publication analyzes our current need to ensure that people get equitable and equal access to the sector’s advances, thus guaranteeing a healthy population.

In 1948, the UN defined health as an essential right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whereby everyone should enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. This means that the entire population has the right to timely, acceptable and affordable access to quality health services.

In this new issue, Silvia Gold reflects on how healthcare is one of the fundamental human rights for the population, as well as the requirements for a community to achieve universal health coverage. In this regard, the pharmaceutical industry plays a key role, a fact that Sergey Zverev tells us about through the specific case of MSD, which tells us about the decisive role of industry in breaking with inequality in access to healthcare.

There are also numerous challenges in the sector, especially in terms of public and private collaboration, but also a window of opportunity for companies capable of leveraging technology to improve healthcare management. José Martínez Olmos, former Secretary General of Health and Senior Advisor to LLYC, discusses these challenges. These opportunities have led to the emergence of tools that strive to break the healthcare access gap, as is the case of telemedicine. Santiago Rivas García and Luisa Fernanda Ortíz Quiñonez talk about its implementation in Colombia with the aim of increasing the country’s healthcare coverage, and also the challenges involved in using this healthcare system. In addition, Hugo F. Villegas explains the concept of Connected Care promoted by Medtronic, which, through the use of technology, seeks remote and continuous monitoring of the patient for greater peace of mind.