"More than half of people do not receive the healthcare they need, and this is where telehealth plays an absolutely crucial role." With these words, Ferdinando Regalia, Social Sector Manager at the IDB, opened the webinar Telehealth: Connecting Patients and Providers, organized by the IDB, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and the World Bank. During the seminar, … [Read more...] about Telehealth: A Tool to Improve Access, Monitoring, and the Quality of Healthcare
Argentina
Preventing Unnecessary Deaths: Tackling Low Quality of Care
“In LAC, 70% of excess deaths that could have been avoided by adequate healthcare are due to low quality of care while 30% are due to lack of access to care.” This striking statistic is often used to highlight the importance of quality for health outcomes, including in the IDB’s Health Sector Framework. But what is the basis for this estimate, and what does it mean? What … [Read more...] about Preventing Unnecessary Deaths: Tackling Low Quality of Care
Who takes care of older people in Latin America and the Caribbean?
More than 8 million older people are dependent on long-term care in Latin America and the Caribbean. These people are not able, on their own, to perform at least one basic activity of daily living, such as bathing or showering, eating, using the toilet, dressing, getting around a room, or getting in and out of bed. In this region, care dependence affects 12% of people over … [Read more...] about Who takes care of older people in Latin America and the Caribbean?
Coronavirus and Older Adults: Measures Implemented in the Region
Older adults are a highly vulnerable group regarding COVID-19. What measures are Latin American and Caribbean countries taking to look after them? Countries in the region have made rapid progress with social distancing measures to address the pandemic, and responses in the area of long-term care are slowly beginning to be observed. However, these measures are still … [Read more...] about Coronavirus and Older Adults: Measures Implemented in the Region
Older Adults: The New Family Caregivers
Before the arrival of COVID-19, which led to our mandatory, preventive social isolation as a means to mitigate its outbreak, it was common to see elderly couples out on the streets of Buenos Aires, going about their daily lives at a leisurely pace. And whenever I saw them, I would wonder: Who is taking care of whom? The answer is particularly important today since we all know … [Read more...] about Older Adults: The New Family Caregivers