A transformative practice in Mongolia is helping people die with grace and dignity

Hospitals in New York improve healthcare quality and reduce medical costs by staying in frequent contact with patients requiring frequent or long-term care. Montefiore's Accountable Care Organization pulls in care providers from across the medical and social spectrum to improve patient health while curbing expenses.

Digital public infrastructure is helping African countries build more sustainable health systems by replacing fragmented, donor-funded projects with interoperable digital services. In Zambia, for example, the SmartCare Pro electronic health record system uses thumbprints to identify patients and track chronic diseases like TB and HIV, ensuring continuity of care, where it was historically missing.

Despite differing opinions and moral and ethical boundaries among voters and residents, access to euthanasia, or assisted dying, is expanding. Worldwide, there are currently 25 jurisdictions that allow some form of assisted dying, including 10 countries, 11 U.S. states, and four Australian states, with access and regulations varying by region.

The United States now has a variety of federally-supported nutrition programs, but the health care system remains disconnected from the social determinants of health. Many doctors simply lack the resources to provide the comprehensive care proven to have greater impact on health than strictly medical treatment. A group called Health Leads is training young volunteers to treat the social factors, like poor nutrition and housing needs.

Dental offices like Asian Health Services are starting to incorporate mental health care in their dental services. By observing changes in oral health, building trust with patients to talk about their mental health and having them fill out questionnaires about how they’ve been feeling, dentists are able to identify patients that may be struggling and then help connect them with therapy and treatment. Asian Health Services screens 300 to 400 patients per year, about 7% of which are then referred to counseling.

The RECOVERY Rehabilitation Center provides rehabilitation care for wounded soldiers. Providers at the center provide patients with specialized care and help to create individual action plans for when patients leave the center to ensure they have the means to adapt to their new way of life.

Unlike the U.S., in Germany medical debt is almost nonexistent because the country limits how much patients have to pay out-of-pocket for doctor and hospital visits and medications. Affordable access to health care has made German patients less likely than Americans to die from conditions that can be treated with good access to care, such as heart attacks, diabetes, pneumonia, and some cancers.

The Epilepsy Awareness, Aid, and Research Foundation is a nonprofit that fights to reduce stigma and discrimination against people living with epilepsy. The Foundation provides free basic healthcare, anti-epileptic medications, and even has a program that trains youth to raise awareness of epilepsy and the stigma surrounding it within their communities.

Switzerland is home to the world's lowest avoidable mortality rate and residents of the country live longer lives and are healthier than those who live in the United States. Health policy experts credit the Swiss health care system for playing a significant role. Despite the high cost and the penalty for not carrying insurance, the system is praised as guarateeing access to quality health-care and "unlike the U.S., people rarely go bankrupt from medical bills."

Emergency room visits cost money and are not the most comfortable places to be. The Massachusetts-based Medicare program called Independence at Home gives doctors incentives to visit frail patients at home and received a cut of the cost. The program also pairs patients with social workers and continues to save Medicare millions of dollars.