There’s nothing quite like a pandemic to get you to reflect on your ten-year cancer anniversary.

I became a self-taught expert in navigating the U.S. healthcare system beginning around February 2010, when I was 35. I was sitting at work one morning and I felt an explosive pain in my abdomen. A can’t-breathe, can’t-move kind of pain. I knew it wasn’t normal, but I wanted to convince myself that bodies are weird and do weird things, and I’d worry about it if it happened again. And, of course, it happened again soon enough.

The COVID-19 pandemic is changing the way we all do things. How we work, communicate, and problem solve looks quite different from what most of us are used to. However, what I’ve seen over the past several months reminds me that necessity really is the mother of invention — and reinvention. The crisis is challenging us to innovate and reengineer for this new reality.

The power to speak and communicate our needs clearly is something that most of us take for granted. It is only when these abilities are compromised that we begin to recognize their true value. 

Communicating with patients suffering from COVID-19 has presented a new set of challenges for healthcare providers. 

In the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, I have found great comfort in seeing the best of humanity unfold — the resilience of spirit and our collective resourcefulness.

These early stages of the outbreak have been an extreme test of adjusting to new ways of doing things before even considering a return to “normal.” 

In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the secure and accurate sharing of patient data is more critical than ever. Healthcare organizations need the ability to access up-to-date information about any patient who enters their doors, especially in urgent care settings. 

A version of this post originally appeared on the IMO website. 

The ability to easily document possible exposure to, infection with, or any other clinical symptoms of COVID-19 is crucial to mitigating the impact of the pandemic. However, the lack of standardized coding to capture this information at the start of the outbreak, coupled with the rapid evolution of scientific understanding of the novel virus, has made this an inherently difficult task.  

COVID-19 has hit the healthcare industry so hard that many hospitals have been forced to furlough staff, or worse, close their doors. Relief payments from the CARES Act are a lifeline for organizations under enormous economic strain; though the healthcare portions of the legislation are only a few pages long, addendums are being released intermittently, making it easy for administrators — already in crisis mode — to lose track of the very subsidies the legislation provides.  

To help you stay on top of available relief payments and loans, we’ve summarized the opportunities and included links to helpful resources. Think of this blog post as your cheat sheet for financial support that may be available to your organization. 

There has been a lot of talk about heroes lately, and rightfully so. 

Over the past several weeks I’ve been seeing signs around the neighborhood, made by children, thanking our healthcare heroes: hand-drawn rainbow art taped to front doors and living room windows. It got me thinking about what our childhood heroes looked like before this crisis. Ordinary people with extraordinary powers, anonymously protecting the defenseless. Sports teams that never give up, even when they fall behind. Our moms and dads, looking out for us and putting our needs before their own. Do they remind you of anyone?

A version of this post originally appeared on the Forward Advantage website. 

COVID-19 has created unprecedented challenges for everyone, especially the healthcare industry. Whereas other industries can shut down or go fully remote, hospitals must stay open even in the direst circumstances. However, this doesn’t mean hospitals must be rendered completely vulnerable. It is imperative that patients, care providers and other staff are supported.

This year, Patient Experience Week is taking on a whole new meaning. Consumers, who once may have rated their healthcare providers based on cafeteria food or convenient appointment times, are now shifting their focus to the most important question at hand — how are you helping to keep me safe during this pandemic?