Modeling Inter-Regional Patient Mobility: Does Distance Go Far Enough?

The Paris Declaration Does Not Go Far Enough

A bridge far enough?

T he publication in this issue of Circulation of the Evaluation of the HeartWare Left Ventricular Assist Device for the Treatment of Advanced Heart Failure (ADVANCE) trial by Aaronson, Slaughter, and colleagues 1 tracks continuing advance in the rapidly expanding field of mechanical circulatory support. As implantable device technology and the clinical learning curve have supported better outco...

Regional Incentives and Patient Cross-Border Mobility: Evidence from the Italian Experience

Background In recent years, accreditation of private hospitals followed by decentralisation of the Italian National Health Service (NHS) into 21 regional health systems has provided a good empirical ground for investigating the Tiebout principle of “voting with their feet”. We examine the infra-regional trade-off between greater patient choice (due to an increase in hospital services supply) an...

Interregional Patient Mobility in the Italian NHS: A Case of Badly-Managed Decentralization; Comment on “Regional Incentives and Patient Cross-Border Mobility: Evidence From the Italian Experience”

The article by Brenna and Spandonaro on interregional mobility for acute hospital care in Italy raises important issues concerning social and territorial equity in a healthcare system. Based on Regions and private providers’ strategic behavior, the hypothesis adopted to explain patient cross-border mobility (CBM), demonstrated by statistical analysis, may be further explored using qualitative m...

The future of health economic modeling: have we gone too far or not far enough?

This is a summary of the presentation given by A. Mark Fendrick at the ISPOR 10th Annual International Meeting Second Plenary Session, May 17, 2005, Washington, DC, USA. Dr Fendrick is Professor at the Department of Internal Medicine and Health Management & Policy, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. This presentation immediately followed the presentation, Bringing Health...