What Is Public Trust in the Health System?

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-ND licence. This book explores the concept of public trust in health systems. In the context of recent events, including public response to interventions to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination uptake and the use of health data and digital health, this important book uses empirical evidence to address why public trust is vital to a well-functioning health system. In doing so, it provides a comprehensive contemporary explanation of public trust, how it affects health systems and how it can be nurtured and maintained as an integral component of health system governance.

Felix Gille is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Digital Society Initiative, University of Zurich.

1. Introduction Part 1: Why Do We Care About Public Trust in the Health System? 2. What Is Trust? 3. Three Health System Examples: Vaccination Uptake, COVID-19 Pandemic and Health Data Use in Health Systems Part 2: What Is Public Trust in the Health System? 4. Where Does Public Trust Develop? 5. What Builds Public Trust? 6. What Are the Effects of Public Trust? 7. What Frames Public Trust? Part 3: How Can We Foster Public Trust in the Health System? 8. How Can We Build Public Trust by Means of Effective Health Policy and Governance? 9. How Can We Foster Public Trust by Means of Effective Communications? 10. How Can We Foster Public Trust Through Effective Observation? 11. Conclusion