OVERVIEW

Responsiveness and Resilience: Leading Through Public Health Crises is organized by Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS).

Activity Term:
Original Release Date: December 20, 2021
Termination Date: December 20, 2024

Course Overview:
History of the Oration
The MMS Annual Oration dates back to 1804 when Dr. Isaac Rand delivered his dissertation entitled, On Phthisis Pulmonalis, and the Use of the Warm Bath. For more than 200 years, MMS orators have addressed a wide spectrum of topics germane to the evolving practice of medicine.

In 2021, the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has produced extraordinary challenges for our healthcare system. In addition to inflicting serious illness and an unprecedented loss of life, the pandemic has underscored the deep health and economic inequities that disproportionately afflict communities of color and revealed the consequences of underinvestment in public health preparedness and prevention. Leaders on the frontlines of the response have had to make consequential decisions impacting individual and community health in the context of resource shortages, conflicting information, and politicization of the pandemic.

The 2021 Annual Oration reflects and explores the mindset and skills essential to effective leadership before, during and after a public health crisis. Whereas medicine has a primary role in healing those who are sick, the long-term health of individuals and communities is ultimately dependent upon the equitable distribution of socioeconomic resources and the acceptance of public health information and interventions that empower people to protect themselves and others. In this webinar, recorded on December 2, 2021, Dr. Monica Bharel shares her experience leading through crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and how it can help better inform our work to respond to future crises more effectively and equitably.

Course Objectives:

Apply risk reduction strategies that may mitigate the effects of a public health crisis.
Define how COVID-19, and other crises consistently and disproportionately impact vulnerable populations and what needs to be done to address the inequities in the system.
Discuss the lessons learned and/or new positive changes that resulted from the crisis.