Under the patronage of the Ministry of Public Health, the Lebanese American University Medical Center- Rizk Hospital and the LAU School of Pharmacy, organized a seminar on the subject of “Managing Lebanon Healthcare through Economics Hardship and Beyond”.

The seminar was attended by Dr. Colette Reaidy, a representative of the Ministry of Public Health on behalf of his Excellency Dr. Firas Abiad; Mr. Mohammad Hibri, representative of ACAL (Association des compagnies assurances au Liban); Dr. Marwan Hakim, representative of LPIA;  Brigadier General Maher Bou Chaar, Chief of the military medical; Colonel Chawki Mitri, State Security Medicine; Dr. Jo Salloum, President of Order of Pharmacist of Lebanon; Dr. Wadih Mina, local expert in health economics, board member of LSPOR; as well as VPS, Deans, physicians, residents, and staff of the LAU and LAU Medical Center- Rizk Hospital.

The aim of the seminar was to gather experts in the field of health and economics, along with key decision makers in the healthcare sector, with the hopes of developing an action plan to overcome the serious difficulties the country has been enduring. The mission of the discussions was to ensure equitable allocation of healthcare services and to try to ensure that the total investment in medicine remains affordable, for the sustainability of both the public and private healthcare sectors.

The forum began with a speech from Mr. Sami Rizk who welcomed the attendees saying:

“we are proud to have you all partaking in this one of its kind seminar through which we hope  to be able to come-up with a complete new healthcare coverage system/model in a very short time”

Then, participants watched a   video speech from President Michel Mawad, who welcomed all attendees: “I want to reassure everyone that LAU is doing everything it can to mitigate the challenges we are facing in delivering the health services to our patients and constituents.”
Dr. Soumana Nasser, Chair of the Pharmacy Practice Department at LAU  and  President of ISPOR (Lebanese Society of PharmacoEconomics and Outcome Research) opened the session by thanking everyone for their presence and sharing an overview of the program with the attendees. “We all have one aim: to make treatment available and affordable for all. We need to regain public trust, to calm the “panic mode”, and to adopt a positive attitude no matter what! It is time to move our discussion from the ‘what should be done’ to ‘what to do now’, so we will learn how HealthCare providers and policy makers are sustaining healthcare service.”

The seminar speakers then took the stage, each presenting an overall and solutions from their perspective.

Dr. Dabbous, MD, PhD,Vice President, Gene Therapies, Novartis, Chicago, USA presented his strategy and potential solutions for a Healthcare for ALL. This was followed by Lieutenant Colonel Habib Abdo, Head of Central Military Laboratories, who shared his thoughts on Healthcare Coverage and Sustainability in Public Sector. Dr. Sola Bahous, Dean of the LAU Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury School of Medicine took the floor to share her views and strategies on how to sustain healthcare in private sector. As for Naser Alsharif, PharmD, PhD Dean of the LAU School of Pharmacy, he explained the ethical implications on allocation of resources. Finally, Shadi Saleh, PhD, MPH Director of the Global Health Institute and Professor of Health Systems and Financing shared his strategy and advice on potential contribution of the private sector and international community in supporting access to care.

Following the individual presentations, a panel discussion was launched including several interventions from key speakers.

Dr. Wadih Mina (expert in HE and health policy & board member of LSPOR) summarized the new reality, on what is being done to reshape healthcare decisions and the ongoing plan to advance Private-Public partnership.

Dr. Colette Reaidy (MOPH) discussed the challenges and barriers that the ministry has been facing since the crisis. She also presented the MOPH plan to reshape the issue of availability vs affordability.

Mr. Mohamad Hibri (ACAL – insurance) addressed the concern of insurance companies due to the short notice changes or change in subsidies is an issue, as insurance companies are committed to their clients for a year and pricing insurances based on existing policies of having many drugs subsidized – (further lifting of subsidy will significantly increase cost on insurance.

Dr. Hakim (LPIA) highlighted on the main goal to make drugs available to facilitate access to medicine and the need for all stakeholders to continue working together as we move forward.

Dr. Soumana Nasser ended the seminar with the following conclusion statement: “this seminar shows a promising collaboration between Private-Public stakeholders aiming to reshape the healthcare decisions to better serve the Lebanese healthcare system in the near future”