Illustrative: plants and ports, the routes between them and goods moving along; one node is disrupted and its routes stall

Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Health and Society · Department of Global Health Security

Hospital safety, surge capacity, workforce, supply chains and continuity

Health systems and health care resilience

Health systems and health care resilience covers the capacity of a health system to keep essential services running through shocks: hospital safety, surge capacity, workforce, medical supply chains, digital health and health data, health financing shocks and equity.

01Scope

What the discipline covers

The subtopics its courses and labs teach.

Courses
In preparation
Levels
L2 Intermediate
Labs
Map lab, Exposure lab
  • Health system continuity
  • Hospital safety and resilience
  • Surge capacity and workforce
  • Medical supply chains
  • Digital health and health data
  • Health financing shocks
  • Health equity
  • Patient safety
02Maps

Build a twin of any place

Search any place or open the world; the layers and generators follow health systems and health care resilience on the planet map, the globe and in 3D.

Delhi and its National Capital Territory core: a flat plan of the faculty twin. Terrain 191 to 315 m; 950 hospitals; 26,073,018 people in the box, 2020; Population density, GPW v4.11 (2020): read live when the 3D twin opens; Air quality, Copernicus CAMS via Open-Meteo (hourly, 5 days): read live when the 3D twin opens; Nitrogen dioxide column, TROPOMI (Sentinel-5P): read live when the 3D twin opens; Surface air temperature, AIRS (daily, day): read live when the 3D twin opens; Urban heat island, summer daytime 2013: read live when the 3D twin opens; Built-up and settlement extent, HBASE 2010: read live when the 3D twin opens. Contours every 50 metres from the elevation grid; people per cell, worldpop 2020 as four classes per cell (edges 4,474, 14,627, 25,652); hospitals as marks.
Delhi and its National Capital Territory core, India. Flat plan of the same data: relief as contours from the inline grid, the WorldPop count grid as cells, the mapped hospitals and the numbers below. The 3D twin opens on devices that can draw it, once its data and code have been checked.
  • Terrain 191 to 315 m
  • 950 hospitals
  • 26,073,018 people in the box, 2020
  • Population density, GPW v4.11 (2020): read live when the 3D twin opens
  • Air quality, Copernicus CAMS via Open-Meteo (hourly, 5 days): read live when the 3D twin opens
  • Nitrogen dioxide column, TROPOMI (Sentinel-5P): read live when the 3D twin opens
  • Surface air temperature, AIRS (daily, day): read live when the 3D twin opens
  • Urban heat island, summer daytime 2013: read live when the 3D twin opens
  • Built-up and settlement extent, HBASE 2010: read live when the 3D twin opens
Credits and dates per layer are listed under the stage. Relief in the twin is exaggerated ×1.5 for legibility.

Drag to move, right drag or Shift with a drag to turn and tilt, Ctrl with the wheel to zoom. Keyboard: arrows move, Shift with arrows turn and tilt, + and – zoom, 0 resets, V steps through the views, Escape clears.

Flat plan of the same data: relief as contours from the inline grid, the WorldPop count grid as cells, the mapped hospitals and the numbers below. The 3D twin opens on devices that can draw it, once its data and code have been checked.

The boundaries, names and designations shown do not imply any judgement on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Countries: Natural Earth (public domain).

03Live map

Environmental exposure in India

Haze, nitrogen dioxide, dust, surface heat by day and night, and where people live, over India.

The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.

Layers 2

Environmental exposure

Latest available

NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth

Loading the latest NASA imagery.

Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.

Environmental exposure, framed on India.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.

Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONETSources and licences

  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • MODIS and VIIRS atmosphere products, NASA LANCE and LAADS DAAC; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • OMI nitrogen dioxide (Aura) and OMPS aerosol index (Suomi NPP), NASA; distributed by the NASA GES DISC; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • MERRA-2 reanalysis, NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office; distributed by the NASA GES DISC; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University. 2018. Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density, Revision 11. NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). doi:10.7927/H49C6VHW. CC BY 4.0
  • NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), VIIRS 375 m active fire product, NASA LANCE; vector tiles via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
  • Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
  • © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). ODbL
  • Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
  • Globe: MapLibre GL JS 6.9.1, BSD-3-Clause, © MapLibre contributors.
  • Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
  • NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
  • Air quality forecast, 5 days, PM2.5 (CAMS via Open-Meteo): Contains modified Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service information 2026.
  • Past year, daily temperature (ERA5 via Open-Meteo): Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
  • Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (https://open-meteo.com/), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
  • Optional layers (12 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.

Layers and dates

  • Aerosol optical depth, daily: VIIRS NOAA-20 Deep Blue AOD, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
  • Land surface temperature, day, 8-day composite: VIIRS NOAA-20 Level 3, 8-day, NASA LANCE · 14 Sep 2026
  • Nitrogen dioxide, lower atmosphere column: OMI Aura, NASA GES DISC · 10 Oct 2026
  • Surface dust PM2.5, monthly mean: MERRA-2, NASA GMAO / GES DISC · July 2026
  • Land surface temperature, night, 8-day composite: VIIRS NOAA-20 Level 3, 8-day, NASA LANCE · 14 Sep 2026
  • Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
  • Active fires and thermal anomalies: VIIRS NOAA-20 375 m (FIRMS), NASA LANCE FIRMS · 13 Oct 2026
  • Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026

04The subject

The subject, methods and measures and debates and bodies

The field and its scope

For hospital managers, ministry planners and infrastructure analysts who must keep essential services running through a shock and show where a system will fail first.

05The method

From a shock to a full hospital: occupancy, surge margin and the day the beds run out

A health system's margin is the share of staffed beds that are empty on an ordinary day; a shock that admits patients faster than they are discharged eats that margin at a rate set by the intake rate times length of stay, and the day it reaches zero is a number a planner can compute in advance.

Sources: Kruk, Myers, Varpilah and Dahn, What is a resilient health system? Lessons from Ebola (2015); Haldane and others, Health systems resilience in managing the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons from 28 countries (2021); Little, A proof for the queuing formula L = lambda W (1961); WHO Global Health Observatory, hospital beds per 10,000 population (2026-10-17).

06Signature

How health systems and health care resilience connects the sectors

Select corners to build a signature, then hover a line to read what each sector gives and receives.

Select corners · hover lines6 / 15 relations

Signature

Health and its partners

Health gives workforce for operations to infrastructure (0.3), farm labour to food (0.3) and utility workforce to water (0.2).

W · E · I · F · H · B

Sectors
4 of 6
Relations
6 of 15
Coupling
0.42 share of total

Strongest relations in play

  • Water → Food · irrigation0.8
  • Food → Health · nutrition0.7
  • Infrastructure → Water · pipes, dams and treatment works0.6
  • Water → Health · drinking water and sanitation0.7
Teaching values for a typical city-region, not measurements for any place. Coupling is the summed strength of the relations in play, as a share of all fifteen.
07At a glance

At a glance, with 5 related topics

Health systems and health care resilience at a glance

risksacademy.comhealth-societydiscipline

Health systems and health care resilience: 0 primary courses open, 1 in preparation and 2 also taught here, across 8 subtopics. Courses: RAN-316 L2 in preparation, RAF-112 L1 also taught here, RAF-120 L1 also taught here.L1L2L3L4Also
Health systems and health care resilience at a glance
  • Open, 0
  • In preparation, 1
  • Also taught here, 2
  • Subtopics, 8
Course codes from the curriculum; study levels L1 to L4.
Twin builderBuild a twin of any placeWorked example: Delhi and its National Capital Territory core · 5 generators · 11 layers · 3 instruments
08Labs

How the subject is practised in labs

LabWhat you do in itCourses using it
Map labRead hazard, exposure and boundaries on real maps3
Exposure labOverlay people and assets with hazard footprints1
09Console

How Health systems and health care resilience is taught, as a process you can run

Press Play to run this process from this page's own data.

10Practice

Practice, learning and connections

How technology helps and what risk it brings

11Take part

Take part in Health and Society

Start from who you are.

12References

Core references and where to begin

Start with World Health Organization, then Kruk, then Blanchet.

13Questions

Questions, answers and key terms

Is study here free?
Yes. Every course and learning material of Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium, is free to study, self-paced or with a cohort. Ordinary participation has no fee; paid work, internships and fellowships are separate arrangements.
What does completing a course give me?
A completion record: the course, its version, the date and what was assessed, private by default and shared by you. It stacks into discipline, department and programme achievements. A record states what was studied and assessed and does not certify competence; it is not a licence, a professional title or an employment status.
Where do the data and the places come from?
Every faculty teaches on a twin of a real place built from open data; each layer carries its provider, licence and date, and every result on the Academy states its source. Maps and figures are indicators for teaching, never an assessment of a place.
How do I take part beyond the courses in health systems and health care resilience?
Form a competence cell of three to seven people, study a shared pathway, take a supervised assignment in the National Working Groups, or bring a cohort from your institution. For organisations.

Key terms

Term

Surge capacity

The ability of a health system to expand services quickly during a sudden rise in demand.

Term

Hospital safety index

A tool that assesses whether a hospital is likely to keep functioning in an emergency.

Term

Essential health services

The services a health system must maintain in all circumstances.

Term

Universal health coverage

Access for all people to the health services they need without financial hardship.

ReportsContribute

Contribute evidence from this page.

Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.

Risk Academy
Health systems and health care resilience

Prepare with a related course

Open courses in connected disciplines teach the methods this discipline will build on.

Risk Academy

Courses · practice · credentials

Not for profit

Our articles, maps and twins are free to read and free to republish. Readers and partners keep it that way.

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Who funds us

Risk Academy is a not-for-profit institution. To ask who funds a piece of work, use the funding questions form.

Independence

Editors and the expert reviewers named on each article decide what we publish. Funders and partners do not review or approve articles before publication.

Licence

Articles: CC BY 4.0. Figures, maps, twins and data: CC BY 4.0. Other uses: ask through the permissions form.