A natural response to difficult questions is to increase the number of objectives one pursues in the hope that each of them separately will be easy to satisfy. This note critically evaluates this strategy as employed in a recent paper in this journal [Musgrove, Health Policy 1999;47:207-223], especially its evaluation of the role of cost-effectiveness in priority setting in the health sector. I...

Only a few studies have assessed the economic outcomes of palliative therapy. The major areas of interest include hospice care, the process and structure of care, symptom management, and palliative chemotherapy compared to best supportive care. Compared with nonhospice care, hospice care saves at best 3% of total care costs. Advance directives done early in the disease course may save end-of-li...

results the findings of this study showed that in most selected countries, primary care services were provided by the private sector and the public sector has been mostly functioning as a supervisor in this area, but in iran, primary care services were provided by the government. the findings of this study also showed that hospital services in iran and selected countries (second and third level...

Politicians across the political spectrum support greater investment in health care information and communications technology (ICT) and expect it to significantly decrease costs and improve health outcomes. We address three policy questions about adoption of ICT in health care: First, why is there so little adoption? Second, what policies will facilitate and accelerate adoption? Third, what is ...

OBJECTIVE To consider the effect of the economic discount rate on health care policy and the rationale for discounting the collective future of society generally. DESIGN A review of the concept of discounting the future vis à vis the present from the points of view of individuals (who pass on) and of societies (that continue) and reconsideration of the application of discounting to typical pu...

About 80 percent of the world population currently lives in countries that are either developed or developing. The other 20 percent lives in countries that are stagnant or falling behind. As a result, by the 2015 target date for the Millennium Development Goals, about one billion people will still live in severe poverty. Some of these people will live in countries that are stuck in one or more ...

reducing wastes in the healthcare processes is crucial for developing a high performance health system. adopted from the toyota production system (tps), the lean concept has emerged in recent years as a way of introducing innovative ideas to improve industrial processes. in the context of health care, lean is considered as a continuous improvement model, which provides healthcare organization t...

In the UK, the General Medical Council clearly stipulates that upon completion of training, medical students should be able to discuss the principles underlying the development of health and health service policy, including issues relating to health economics. With the National Health Service facing the threat of large gaps in funding, there is pressure on doctors to identify where and how savi...