There can be no mistake: Donald Trump was just elected with a mandate for change. By announcing that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can go wild about healthhas targeted healthcare in America as a prime candidate for major change. This mandate could be a force that revitalizes and restructures America’s health care system, or it could put Camelot on a curveball. Here are five areas that can show how RFK Jr. decides between the two:

The vaccine question

First, Kennedy, a famous vaccine skepticalwould provide an essential service by determining and elucidating the risks and effectiveness of all vaccines, particularly those against Covid-19 and influenza. In a recent jobhe said: “Bottom line: I’m not going to take vaccines away from anyone. I just want to make sure every American knows the safety profile, risk profile, and effectiveness of each vaccine. That’s it.”

There is no doubt that vaccines have saved more lives than all other medical treatments combined. However, we are now in a new era of mRNA vaccines, and yet most Americans, including many healthcare professionals, have no comprehensive understanding of their risks and effectiveness. It is well known that these vaccines do not prevent Covid-19 infection, but they can reduce the severity of the disease in people with healthy immune systems. However, for people without a functioning immune system, their benefits are minimal at best. A full-scale government investigation would be a good start to answering this question..

Bringing drug manufacturing back to the United States

Second, the United States must begin offshoring its health care infrastructure. A prime example is the need for the United States to produce more of its active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), the essential components of medicines. Currently, the United States produces only 10% of these vital chemicals and relies on imports for the rest. The main suppliers are India (48%) and China (13%), with Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Germany accounting for the remainder. Any geopolitical or environmental disruption in supply chains would have devastating consequences for the entire U.S. healthcare system. Encouraging and facilitating domestic production of APIs would increase public health safety, create jobs, and reduce dependence on outside manufacturers.

The disruptions are not theoretical. The recent devastating floods in North Carolina highlight another weakness in America’s health care infrastructure that Kennedy must address: the overreliance on a single, or very few, health care providers. essential health equipment. Floods caused by Hurricane Helene closed the Baxter International factory, which produces 60% of the country’s IV solutions. This shutdown has paralyzed health care delivery in much of the country. Fortunately, Canada, China, the United Kingdom and Ireland provided emergency equipment, but hospitals were initially forced to ration supplies.

Reform the HHS

Third, the federal health care bureaucracy is a network of cumbersome, inefficient, wasteful, and often redundant agencies. Within these agencies, there is already a Game of Thrones atmosphere in which everyone fights to protect their independence and funding, but to what end? Even before the elections, the pressing demand for a reasonable restructuring of the bureaucratic giant was recognized, and one of the initiative The restructuring of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is worth studying. Restructuring, to eliminate duplication of effort, continuation of failed or failed projects, and cost-ineffective projects, while strengthening areas with greater potential, makes sense. The time has come to invest more in the too often neglected areas of diagnosis and therapy. There is, however, one reservation: a slash-and-burn approach makes no sense, as illustrated by the recent authoritarian policy of CDC budget cuts and layoffsdoesn’t make sense.

Patient Information

Fourth, patient engagement in their health care remains of paramount importance. The biggest cause of poor health in America is obesity, and it doesn’t just lead to diabetes. GLP-1 drugs have been touted as effective in reducing obesity, but at a cost that remains to be determined. The only action of the GLP-1 drug is to slow down digestion. All other benefits come from weight loss. However, it is not well known that in some people the use of GLP-1 has led to serious adverse effects, and the cost in real dollars is staggering.

With almost daily advances in self-monitoring, individuals can track their sleep patterns, physical activities, and vital signs. This lends itself to behavior modification. Consistent with this benefit, what would happen if every person in the United States had access, in addition to the benefits we just listed, to an inexpensive continuous glucose monitoring system that would provide a real-time reading of calorie consumption and benefits of exercise? Of course, maximizing the benefits of deploying and using monitoring devices will require education of providers and consumers. However, such monitoring leads to healthy and measurable results. lifestyle changes. 74% of American adults are overweight, it is one of the most important factors affecting health. Self-monitoring is a means of raising patient awareness and constitutes a stimulus to modify their behavior. Proactively involving patients in their health is far more effective than the more costly reactive need to treat disease.

Health is a business

Fifth, Kennedy would have his most significant impact on health care if he could refocus the lucrative business of medicine on its original goal of maintaining and improving health. For-profit healthcare buyouts can generate impressive returns for investors, but in some cases returns only grow significantly at the price of Poorer quality patient care and outcomes. The latter situation is due to reductions imposed in certain installations in the name of efficiency and cost control. Primary care physicians and other specialists must see up to 40 patients per day to meet their performance indicators. The biggest cost for any healthcare facility is staff. While reducing staff While this reduces costs, it also leads to overtaxing remaining staff, burnout, and poorer patient care. A 10% increase in nurses’ intention to quit is linked to a 14% increase in patient mortality.. Doctors similar complaints are being recorded, and dissatisfaction is one of the reasons for the shortage of primary care doctors. The fact that healthcare is a business does not and should never put profit over health.

On November 5, American voters issued a mandate for change. The new administration is, so far, long on promises and short on details. As far as the doctor’s prescription goes, RFK Jr. might be just what the doctor ordered to change that.