background in 2004, the health system in iran initiated an organizational reform aiming to increase the autonomy of teaching hospitals and make them more decentralized. the policy led to the formation of a board of trustees in each hospital and significant modifications in hospitals’ financing. since the reform aimed to improve its predecessor policy (implementation of hospital autonomy began i...

conclusions with regard to the current challenges in iran’s health system, using risk-adjusted capitation as a primary healthcare payment system can lead to useful changes in the health system’s features. however, future research should focus on the development of the risk-adjusted capitation model. background when a country’s health system is faced with fundamental flaws that require the redes...

The current system of health technology development is characterised by multiple misalignments. The “supply” side (innovation policy-makers, entrepreneurs, investors) and the “demand” side (health policy-makers, regulators, health technology assessment, purchasers) operate under different – and conflicting – logics. The system is less a “pathway” than an unstable ecosystem of multiple interacti...

BACKGROUND A union/management system of job evaluation has been in place in the British Columbia (BC) sawmill industry since the late 1960s. This system uses an instrument, very similar to the job content questionnaire (JCQ) to evaluate psychosocial work conditions for sawmill jobs. METHODS Four experienced evaluators, one from the union and three from industry, independently estimated psycho...

OBJECTIVE To identify psychosocial aspects of work associated with common mental disorders in workers who maintain electrical transmission lines and equipment. METHODS A cross-sectional study was performed with 158 workers in the maintenance sector of an electric power company, in Northeastern Brazil. The main independent variable were the psychosocial aspects of work, measured according to t...

Heavy metals and dyes are major contributors in contamination of water streams. These contaminants enter into our eco- system, thus posing a significant threat to public health, ecological equilibrium and environment. Thus a combined discharge of these contaminants results in water pollution with high chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, color, particulate matter, suspended particl...

Background Performance-based financing (PBF) is often proposed as a way to improve health system performance. In Benin, PBF was launched in 2012 through a World Bank-supported project. The Belgian Development Agency (BTC) followed suit through a health system strengthening (HSS) project. This paper analyses and draws lessons from the experience of BTC-supported PBF alternative approach – especi...

Arguably, few factors will change the future face of the American health care workforce as widely and dramatically as health information technology (IT) and electronic health (e-health) applications. We explore how such applications designed for providers and patients will affect the future demand for physicians. We performed what we believe to be the most comprehensive review of the literature...