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Telemedicine has been available in Canada for a while but its uptake before the COVID-19 pandemic has been slow. The pandemic has since changed how people in Canada access healthcare by hastening digital transformation in the sector. Pre-pandemic, Canada was behind its international peers in its use of telemedicine. Now, many patient consultations, both primary and specialist, are conducted virtually. RAND Europe researchers examined the potential impact in Canada of continued, long-term use of telemedicine, which can include the use of 'smart' devices to conduct medical tests, the digital storage and sharing of medical records, and real-time tele-consultations between healthcare providers and patients. They looked at the quality, access and cost of telemedicine, the barriers that have led to its relatively slow adoption, and what the economic effect would be of an increase in uptake. The study found that, alongside the benefits from tools such as telemonitoring and digital health records, widespread use of teleconsultations could lead to significant benefits for Canadian patients, the Canadian economy, and wider Canadian society. The findings directly contribute to the evidence base in telemedicine and virtual healthcare more generally.

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It can be useful to rethink a difficult problem by applying a new lens and seeing whether that lens provides new strategies and either reinforces or calls into question existing ones. A change of leadership in Washington provides an opportunity to once again reevaluate the relationship between the United States and North Korea, and to figure out ways to productively move forward. In this report, the authors draw on intuition from game theory to better understand the situation in North Korea. These insights and recommendations are based on game theoretic analysis of how to deal with Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, and the situation on the Korean peninsula; specifically, how to carry out negotiations on denuclearization. The authors argue that U.S. policy should make better use of concrete actions that are designed to elucidate Kim's ultimate goals and motivations. Much more emphasis at the beginning of negotiations should be placed on designing effective monitoring and verification mechanisms, figuring out a way to ensure credible commitment on both sides, and determining the long-term effects of any action on future negotiations and other countries. Strong multilateral cooperation, especially with China, is the best way to deal with North Korea; the incentives of North Korean elites have not been discussed enough in the existing literature. Deadlines to spur progress—and consequences if those deadlines are not met—are vitally important because, with each passing year, North Korea's technological prowess and stockpile of nuclear weapons are likely increasing.

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The COVID-19 pandemic that began in December 2019 was a major global shock whose implications are still playing out. Some pandemic effects manifested immediately via increased mortality rates in numerous countries. The pandemic's longer-term impacts, such as economic fallout and social instability, are also beginning to emerge. While there is a growing consensus that the pandemic has adversely affected many countries' economies and may exacerbate socio-political unrest, understanding the dynamics of this process remains challenging. Our research suggests that COVID-19 will significantly increase the risk of civil conflict in unstable African countries. We estimate this effect will, in turn, have negative global economic repercussions via international trade losses. We estimate that COVID-19 has increased Africa's baseline risk of civil conflicts by roughly six per cent on average — a modest but significant increase in conflict risk — although the effect is higher in a handful of countries. Due to trade losses, we estimate that these increased risks may have pernicious effects on the largest global economies. Our model suggests that economic losses due to increased COVID-19-related conflicts could reach nearly

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Experience shows that, in response to pandemics, national governments tend to follow their own interests instead of pursuing a more globally coordinated approach. This nationalistic behaviour could have negative consequences on how well the COVID-19 global pandemic is managed and contained. A situation in which countries push to get first access to a supply of vaccines, potentially hoarding key components for vaccine production, has been commonly referred to as 'vaccine nationalism'. This report examines how the management of the COVID-19 crisis may be affected by vaccine nationalism and what the associated economic cost would be of inequitable access to vaccines across countries.

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The 'healthiness' of indoor environments such as homes, schools and work places has recently received increasing attention and been the subject of publications and guidelines by governmental agencies and the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO has distinguished between the following aspects of the indoor environment: thermal environment; air quality environment; noise environment; and light environment. The combination of all those is also referred to as indoor climate. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of poor indoor climate on child health and to estimate the overall societal costs related to this. For this purpose, the study team has combined a rapid evidence assessment (REA), a multivariate regression analysis, an estimation of the health and educational burden as well as a macroeconomic modelling exercise. While REA looked at evidence from across Europe and North America, the other three tasks focussed on the EU28. In terms of specific aspects of poor indoor climate, the REA covered the following indoor climate hazards: damp; mould; indoor air pollution; noise; radiation (through radon); excess cold; lack of daylight. In function of the statistical data available, the regression analysis focussed on a subset of these hazards. The estimation of the health and educational burden as well as the macroeconomic modelling then zoomed in on the impact of damp and mould. The modelling also covered an additional aspect, which is the educational and economic impact of poor ventilation in schools.