BACKGROUND There is an emerging global consensus on the importance of universal health coverage (UHC), but no unanimity on the conceptual definition and scope of UHC, whether UHC is achievable or not, how to move towards it, common indicators for measuring its progress, and its long-term sustainability. This has resulted in various interpretations of the concept, emanating from different discip...

BACKGROUND Health services that operate 7 days per week are under pressure to show the increased cost of providing weekend services can be measured in improved patient outcomes. The evidence for weekend allied health services in acute medical and surgical wards is weak and there is wide variation between the services offered at different hospitals. METHODS This qualitative study was undertake...

1 1Centre for Health Economics, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK 2Department of Economics and Related Studies, University of York, York, UK 3Julius Centre for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Centre Utrecht, The Netherlands 4Department of Health Technology & Services Research, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands Correspondence to: S Griffin susan.griffin@yor...

Background In Austria, 98% of the population is covered by (statutory) health insurance. The HVB (Main Association of Austrian Social Security Institutions) publishes the Reimbursement Code (EKO) for outpatient medicines, and if new medicines are submitted for inclusion, these are subjected to pharmacological, medical/therapeutic and health economic evaluation. Providing modern and comprehensiv...

The World Health Report 2000 proposed three fundamental goals for health systems encompassing population health, health care finance and health systems responsiveness. The goals incorporate both an efficiency and equity dimension. While inequalities in population health and health care finance have motivated two important strands of research, inequalities in responsiveness have received less at...

BACKGROUND Health economic evaluations support the health care decision-making process by providing information on costs and consequences of health interventions. The quality of such studies is assessed by health economic evaluation (HEE) quality appraisal instruments. At present, there is no instrument for measuring and improving the quality of such HEE quality appraisal instruments. Therefore...

OBJECTIVE Despite scientific evidence of effectiveness, psychotherapy for personality disorders is not yet fully deployed, nor is its reimbursement self-evident. Both clinicians and health care policy-makers increasingly rely on evidence-based medicine and health economics when determining a treatment of choice and reimbursement. This article aims to contribute to that understanding by applying...

At the 2011 American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) Winter Symposium we studied the overlap between health IT and economics and what leading healthcare delivery organizations are achieving today using IT that might offer paths for the nation to follow for using health IT in healthcare reform. We recognized that health IT by itself can improve health value, but its main contribution to he...

background: job satisfaction remains as an important concern for both employer and employee. the leaving of work­place and migration to city centers is one of the main results of job dissatisfaction among the primary health care (phc) provid­ers in rural setting of iran, behvarzes. determining the predictor's factors of the phc providers' job dissatisfac­tion and provid­ing appropriate strategi...

Physical inactivity has reached epidemic proportions in modern society. Abundant evidence points to a causal link between physical inactivity and increased risk for numerous noncommunicable diseases, such as some types of cancer and heart disease, as well as premature mortality. Yet, despite this overwhelming evidence, many individuals do not meet the recommended amount of physical activity req...