World Health Day: Building a Fairer, Healthier World
World Health Day is an important day each year that is celebrated across the world and presents a global opportunity to spread awareness and focus attention on important health and wellness issues impacting people across the world.
What is World Health Day?
World Health Day is celebrated each year on April 7. It was originally founded in 1948 to celebrate the creation of the World Health Organization (WHO). In 1950, the first official World Health Day was celebrated. World Health Day is both a day for celebration and spreading awareness on important issues that impact the health and wellbeing of people across the globe.
2021 World Health Day theme
Each year World Health Day focuses on a specific theme to highlight and spread awareness on a global health issue. This year the theme is “building a fairer, healthier world”. This is an important issue because numerous people across the world are unable to receive access to the care they need to achieve wellness. Health disparities are differences or gaps in care between different groups of people. 70% of a patient’s long term wellness is influenced by factors outside of hospital walls. These factors are called social determinants of health (SDOH). SDOH are environmental, social, and economic factors that contribute to an individuals health.
The theme of “building a fairer, healthier world” is especially important to us here at Pieces because it aligns with our mission to advance health and wellbeing. We strive to support health systems and community organizations by providing them the technology and tools that help reduce health inequities and achieve the same access to quality care for all.
COVID-19 highlighted health disparities
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the amount of health disparities present in our society and emphasized the importance of this year’s theme to work to build a fairer, healthier world. COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted minority populations with Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders being most likely to contract COVID-19 and Black/African American people being the most likely to die due to COVID-19. COVID-19 has hit vulnerable populations the hardest as individuals living in impoverished communities typically have more difficulty accessing healthcare services or are not financially able to receive the treatment they need. Many populations across the world are faced with challenges such as food insecurity, lack of access to clean water sources, or insufficient access to housing or healthcare. These challenges result in individuals facing preventable illness or premature death because of the environment in which they live and work.
Working to build a fairer, healthier world
This year’s World Health Day theme emphasizes the need for leaders to work to achieve equity in access to healthcare and ensure that everyone has living conditions that are favorable for good health. At Pieces, we are proud to offer technology that assists physicians by identifying and predicting risk of vulnerable patients and connects individuals in need to resources in their community.
Pieces Predict is a cloud-based software platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), and clinically-reviewed algorithms to extract critical, actionable data from the full-breadth of electronic health records. It helps reduce the manual effort of hospital employees by identifying critical information which allows doctors to spend more time focusing on their patients' needs and less time chasing data. Predicting outcomes leads to early detection and intervention to prevent disease and decrease patient deterioration. AI and NLP also help quickly and efficiently surface social needs or vulnerabilities from a patient's chart which helps doctors and nurses determine if the patient will need extra assistance upon release from the hospital. For instance, if it is determined that a patient does not have a safe discharge location a hospital care manager is able to make arrangements using Pieces Connect’s referral platform to a housing assistance organization in their community. This positively impacts a patient’s life by connecting them to additional help they need and also reduces their chance of hospital readmission. We are dedicated to advancing health and wellbeing and continue to work toward creating a fairer and healthier world.