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In this viewpoint, we present public policies and public health strategies for a gradual lockdown lifting during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis in two country cases, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. While managing pandemics is critical in terms of preparedness, response, and recovery, it is equally vital to ensure that the measures for a lockdown exit are both efficient and effective. It is critical to learn from first-wave lessons to systematize responses during times of crisis and execute appropriate public policies and public health strategies. This viewpoint highlights the importance of the following during lockdown lifting: pandemic control, health care capacity, training, scaling up of resources and systems, and priority setting of public policies by acknowledging challenges, developing policy insights, and setting the policy direction. The systematic approaches and leadership thinking required for lifting lockdowns during a crisis include the three Rs: Readiness, Responses, and Resilience & Recovery.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a common and prominent cause of morbidity and mortality interventional cardiology (IC) remains an important noninvasive intervention to improve patient outcomes and life expectancy. Aim: The study objectives were to explore how IC services could be optimized. Methods: We adopted multiple methods, including policy analysis, literature review and interviews. Results: The most prominent themes were medical devices and service integration and management. IC Consultant interviews suggest the need to balance supply and demand, implement standards of practice and establish centres of excellence. Conclusion: Optimizing IC services requires a comprehensive approach, including regulatory and financial oversight, organizational management, adoption of clinical and technological best practices, ongoing training, multidisciplinary working and service integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite the differences in the type and quality of healthcare services provided in developing and developed countries, there are still several challenges, especially in providing healthcare services in rural and remote areas. Methods: A qualitative method was chosen for this research. A case study about Hatta Hospital was used to study the barriers and strategies the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) adopted to provide healthcare services for people in rural communities in the Emirate of Dubai. Results: Many barriers affect the delivery of healthcare services to rural residents. These barriers were summed up as structural, financial, and cognitive barriers. In this study, cognitive barriers, such as health literacy, social stigma, awareness to get the resources, and language, were the main barriers, followed by structural barriers like transportation and availability. The financial barriers were not found to be significant in this case study. Conclusion: Accessing to healthcare services in rural areas was considered as a common point in all countries worldwide. There were challenges that could block this like structural, financial and cognitive. The situation in the UAE in general and in DHA, in particular, was quite good and moving forward to reduce the gaps between the urban and rural areas in providing healthcare services. The DHA had many strategies that were implemented to provide high quality services not only in Dubai city, but also to its rural areas like Hatta. These strategies included build up a hospital that has all emergency services, affiliation with larger system or networks, improve the employees' condition and implement and activate using the telehealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A variety of entities are increasingly concerned with sustainability (e.g., customers, firms), and these entities will often increase their sustainability actions if there is a performance and/or quality-of-life incentive to do so. But such a simplistic portrayal of sustainability leaves out the boundaries of what firms would opt to do given certain market conditions and what customers (and other stakeholders) would be willing to sacrifice, if anything, to be sustainable. In response, we develop a theory of market-based sustainability and delineate its core tenets. The theory facilitates a deeper analysis of sustainability actions for firms and customers (but also other primary and secondary stakeholders) – via a focus on sustainability levels and changes – involving direct (doing good), indirect (warm glow), and synergy-related sustainability impacts as well as price fairness. Without such integrative theorizing, firms will likely allocate cost estimates (and price points) that are too high for the undertaken sustainability actions or impact estimates that are too low, or both, instead of achieving a maximum point of sustainability yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The understanding of the public's perceptions concerning health services provides valuable insights for health system improvements. Thus, this study aims to examine the public perceptions of the state of the healthcare service delivery in KSA concerning healthcare quality, affordability, availability/access, and responsiveness. Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study. Between July 2019 and March 2020, an online selfadministrated questionnaire was distributed using convenience sampling. Data was collected from 1,232 respondents and were then analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Results: The study found that the public generally possessed positive perceptions towards quality, accessibility. The overall agreement on most of the healthcare statements related to quality, accessibility, and satisfaction was greater than 50%, whereby the overall agreement was significantly low for responsiveness and varied for the affordability factor. In reference to responsiveness, the results show that more than 60% of the participants agreed that doctors act do not spend plenty of time with them. For the healthcare service affordability factor, 30% of the respondents were uncertain if they can get medical care without being set back financially. Conclusion: Although Saudi Arabia offers free of charge health services to the public, shortcomings related to healthcare affordability are a concern and should be a priority on the country's agenda as they move towards privatization. Also, to strengthen the healthcare system, attention should focus on healthcare system responsiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]