Business Insight presented by Arlington Dermatology Healthcare and Beyond Covid-19 disclosed a lot of anticipated and not anticipated problems with our healthcare system. Poor and almost absent public health, lack of uniformity in exchange of medical information among providers, inability to obtain proper testing, access to medication, and cost were anticipated. For many years, some areas of our country, especially rural and heavily industrial, experienced a lot of frustration with being able to access proper care. It is not accidental that opioid crises affected West Virginia or rural Pennsylvania. Populations of some of the counties there often depend on one or two doctors, a pharmacy, and nothing else. If you injure your knee, you get a painkiller and hardly anybody wonders why you're hurt. There is no such thing as physical therapy in planning, sometimes due to inability to pay and sometimes due to lack of time and proper referral. Large cities, with high density of demographics and diversity of it experienced know about their existence until long after a total disaster during the first months of Covid-19. Mostly part-time workers or long-term symptoms in various areas of subcontracted workers, with no insurance but 7-days a week schedule of jobs, were not only identifying the symptoms too late but through loss of taste and smell, chest pain, could notand did not seek medical help at all. coughing, to extreme fatigue. Many of the If you add communication problems among health care providers and our dysfunctional jobs and daily duties. Some were able to public health, lack of information or conspiracies about the pandemic, well, we ended in a very bad place, with thousands of unattended patients, high death rate, and massive downturn in economy. We will not know the true cost of all healthcare Covid-19 started. They recovered from the virus itself. But they continue experiencing health outcomes, from cardiac events long-haulers are unable to return to their identify how to get help and assistance but, in many cases, we as medical providers, still do not know how to address their continuing health problems. Rough estimate is that up to 10% of COVID-19 survivors continue with some form of symptoms preventing them from normal functioning. Many of them will spending associated with Covid-19 until years from now. The cost will be in direct apply for disability insurance, some others care, losses in economy, losses in individual businesses, and sadly, losses of lives that cannot be quantitated in dollars. Thankfully, vaccines and numbers of and national level of support. Covid-19 potential treatments have been developed lesson should be a good start for us how and the country has a much better grasp of what to do and when to do it. Like with any new disorder, we learned the hard way but not only are we wiser; we are also able to better prevent and protect our health. This is a result of better medical science sharing but a change in social behavior and change. Nobody knows what the future responsibility as well. There is one group of will gift us with, but we should be better individuals who are still not better off: we prepared for any case. call them long-haulers. Certainly, we did not may not even qualify. Our healthcare needs a new medication. The system needs an injection of new ideas to treat our healthcare disease. This needs to happen not only for Covid-19 survivors. This is a must for any new health crisis in the future. And it will come. It may be another pandemic, or it might be a mental health crisis associated with stresses due to climate Michael Bukhalo, MD Arlington Dermatology 5301 Keystone Court Rolling Meadows, IL 60008 Tel. 847 392 5440 | www.arlingtondermatology.net Business Insight presented by Arlington Dermatology Healthcare and Beyond Covid-19 disclosed a lot of anticipated and not anticipated problems with our healthcare system. Poor and almost absent public health, lack of uniformity in exchange of medical information among providers, inability to obtain proper testing, access to medication, and cost were anticipated. For many years, some areas of our country, especially rural and heavily industrial, experienced a lot of frustration with being able to access proper care. It is not accidental that opioid crises affected West Virginia or rural Pennsylvania. Populations of some of the counties there often depend on one or two doctors, a pharmacy, and nothing else. If you injure your knee, you get a painkiller and hardly anybody wonders why you're hurt. There is no such thing as physical therapy in planning, sometimes due to inability to pay and sometimes due to lack of time and proper referral. Large cities, with high density of demographics and diversity of it experienced know about their existence until long after a total disaster during the first months of Covid-19. Mostly part-time workers or long-term symptoms in various areas of subcontracted workers, with no insurance but 7-days a week schedule of jobs, were not only identifying the symptoms too late but through loss of taste and smell, chest pain, could notand did not seek medical help at all. coughing, to extreme fatigue. Many of the If you add communication problems among health care providers and our dysfunctional jobs and daily duties. Some were able to public health, lack of information or conspiracies about the pandemic, well, we ended in a very bad place, with thousands of unattended patients, high death rate, and massive downturn in economy. We will not know the true cost of all healthcare Covid-19 started. They recovered from the virus itself. But they continue experiencing health outcomes, from cardiac events long-haulers are unable to return to their identify how to get help and assistance but, in many cases, we as medical providers, still do not know how to address their continuing health problems. Rough estimate is that up to 10% of COVID-19 survivors continue with some form of symptoms preventing them from normal functioning. Many of them will spending associated with Covid-19 until years from now. The cost will be in direct apply for disability insurance, some others care, losses in economy, losses in individual businesses, and sadly, losses of lives that cannot be quantitated in dollars. Thankfully, vaccines and numbers of and national level of support. Covid-19 potential treatments have been developed lesson should be a good start for us how and the country has a much better grasp of what to do and when to do it. Like with any new disorder, we learned the hard way but not only are we wiser; we are also able to better prevent and protect our health. This is a result of better medical science sharing but a change in social behavior and change. Nobody knows what the future responsibility as well. There is one group of will gift us with, but we should be better individuals who are still not better off: we prepared for any case. call them long-haulers. Certainly, we did not may not even qualify. Our healthcare needs a new medication. The system needs an injection of new ideas to treat our healthcare disease. This needs to happen not only for Covid-19 survivors. This is a must for any new health crisis in the future. And it will come. It may be another pandemic, or it might be a mental health crisis associated with stresses due to climate Michael Bukhalo, MD Arlington Dermatology 5301 Keystone Court Rolling Meadows, IL 60008 Tel. 847 392 5440 | www.arlingtondermatology.net