In mid-2022, the United States has lost more than 1 million people to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have been real-time witnesses to scores of heroic responses to the disease, death, inequity, and economic strife unleashed by the virus, but have also experienced the consequences of poor pandemic preparedness and long-standing structural failures in our health system.


For decades, the U.S. health system has fallen far short of its potential to support and improve individual and population health. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented death and devastation—but also an unprecedented opportunity to truly transform U.S. health, health care, and health delivery.


To capitalize on this opportunity, the National Academy of Medicine gathered field leaders from across all of the major health system sectors to assess how each sector has responded to the pandemic and the opportunities that exist for health system transformation. The opportunity is now to capitalize on the hard-won lessons of COVID-19 and build a health care system that centers patients, families, and communities; cares for clinicians; supports care systems, public health, and biomedical research to perform at the best of their abilities; applies innovations from digital health and quality, safety, and standards organizations; and encourages health care payers and health product manufacturers and innovators to produce products that benefit all.

Table of Contents


Front Matter
1 Patients, Families, and Communities COVID-19 Impact Assessment: Lessons Learned and Compelling Needs
2 Clinicians and Professional Societies COVID-19 Impact Assessment: Lessons Learned and Compelling Needs
3 Care Systems COVID-19 Impact Assessment: Lessons Learned and Compelling Needs
4 Digital Health COVID-19 Impact Assessment: Lessons Learned and Compelling Needs
5 Public Health COVID-19 Impact Assessment: Lessons Learned and Compelling Needs
6 Health Care Payers COVID-19 Impact Assessment: Lessons Learned and Compelling Needs
7 Health Product Manufacturers and Innovators COVID-19 Impact Assessment: Lessons Learned and Compelling Needs
8 Biomedical Research COVID-19 Impact Assessment: Lessons Learned and Compelling Needs
9 Quality, Safety, and Standards Organizations COVID-19 Impact Assessment: Lessons Learned and Compelling Needs
10 Health System Transformation: Common Priorities Across Sectors