本期導讀
本文節選自《經濟學人》20201205期。醫療服務行業很長時間以來都很「謹慎」，對現有的一些設備、技術等也很少進行革新。然而，這個幾十年來最大的「突發事件」（新冠疫情）卻引發了醫療服務行業的一場「革命」。
Health care
Alive and kicking
The world's most complex and immovable industry has been reinventing itself
VAST, BUREAUCRATIC and amorphous, health care has long been cautious about change. However, the biggest emergency in decades has caused a revolution. From laboratories to operating theatres, the industry’s metabolism has soared, as medical workers have scrambled to help the sick. Hastily and often successfully, they have improvised with new technologies. Their creativity holds the promise of a new era of innovation that will lower costs, boost access for the poor and improve treatment. But to sustain it, governments must stop powerful lobbies from blocking the innovation surge when the pandemic abates.
immovable 意思是「固定的」reinvent 指「以新形象示人；以新形式出現」，常用作reinvent oneselfbureaucratic 意思是「官僚主義的」，名詞形式是 bureaucracyamorphous 意思是「無組織的」operating theatre 是個固定表達，指「手術室」metabolism 指「新陳代謝」scramble 意思是「爭搶」，scramble to do 就表示「爭先恐後地……」hastily 指「匆忙地」，形容詞是hastyimprovise 意思是「臨時拼湊，臨時做」，這裡強調疫情突然，他們不得不臨時使用新技術。lobby 指「遊說團體」abate 意思是「減弱，減退」，名詞是abatement
Covid-19 has led to the spectacular development of vaccines using novel mRNA technologies. But there have also been countless smaller miracles as health workers have experimented to save lives (see article). Obsolete IT-procurement rules have been binned and video-calls and voice-transcription software adopted. Machines are being maintained remotely by their makers. With patients stuck at home, doctors have rushed to adopt digital monitoring of those recovering from heart attacks. Organisational silos have been dismantled. All this has taken place alongside a boom in venture-capital-raising for medical innovation: $8bn worldwide in the most recent quarter, double the figure from a year earlier. JD Health, a Chinese digital-medicine star, has just listed in Hong Kong.
novel 在這裡用作形容詞，意思是「新穎的，與眾不同的」，新型冠狀病毒就譯為「Novel coronavirus」obsolete 指「淘汰的；廢棄的；過時的」procurement 意思是名詞「（尤指為政府或機構）採購，購買」，動詞是procurebin 用作動詞，意思是「丟棄」，用作名詞時，意思是「垃圾箱」silo 意思是「簡倉」dismantle 指「拆卸」quarter 本意是「四分之一」，在這裡表示「季度」；一年有四個季度，四分之一自然就是「一季度」。
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