Towards resilience: Professor Mika Salminen, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare

As the global health community continues to examine how prepared we were for a pandemic, this week’s episode asks – how can we move the conversation forward to future resilience, and what systems can be put in place to ensure we can withstand future pandemics?

Our guest this week is Professor Mika Salminen, the Director of Health Security at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. We discuss the World Health Organization’s Joint External Evaluations (JEEs) and States Parties Annual Reports (SPARs), and what he’s learned through his work focussing on measurement systems of health outcomes. 

Much of the dialogue around Covid-19 is around what is currently happening, but Professor Salminen discusses the importance of thinking about what we can do better to safeguard against the next pandemic so that we do not need the prolonged global shutdowns that have had major consequences on our health, welfare, and economies – particularly in low-income countries. 

This conversation was recorded at the recent Global Health Security Conference in Singapore. We hope you join the conversation at @CentreHealthSec and follow Professor Salminen’s work at @mika_salminen and @THLresearch.