Dialogue 3: New Ways of Working in a Time of Crisis – Applying Learnings from COVID-19 to Strengthen Cancer Care

This event is the third discussion in the Chatham House Virtual Policy Dialogues: Maintaining Progress in Cancer Care series and will be followed by meetings on balancing health priorities in the post-COVID19 era and applying learnings from COVID-19 to strengthen and sustain cancer care. This series of events is sponsored by Merck Sharp & Dohme Corporation (MSD).

As COVID-19 continues to challenge health and economic systems around the world, the high value that communities ascribe to the health of individuals is being starkly illustrated. There is now greater recognition of the devastation that uncontrolled diseases can cause and the strain that these diseases place not only on health systems, but the patients that need them and the governments that fund them.

The ‘all at once’ nature of the pandemic and the necessarily urgent societal and governmental reactions to it, brings a sharp contrast to the same types of trade-off health funding decisions that are routinely made in many countries every day.

Recent advances in cancer prevention and development of innovative therapies have changed the landscape of cancer care, and governments have worked to capture the benefits of these innovations – from the development of robust National Cancer Control Plans to the establishment of financing mechanisms such as the United Kingdom’s Cancers Drug Fund or Italy’s innovation fund.

In countries that have made significant progress in cancer care, how can we ensure this progress is not lost in the post-COVID-19 era? The Centre for Universal Health at Chatham House is bringing together a diverse selection of health sector representatives for this series, including policymakers, clinicians, academics, patient groups, and the private sector.

In Dialogue 3 we examine how can we leverage new tools, methodologies, and policies that have emerged in response to COVID-19 to continue the fight against cancer. How can countries maximize COVID-19-driven investments in health systems infrastructure to strengthen other health areas including cancer care?