BACKGROUND Employers are increasingly relying on rewards programmes in an effort to promote greater levels of activity among employees; however, if enrolment in these programmes is dominated by active employees, then they are unlikely to be a good use of resources. OBJECTIVE This study uses a stated-preference survey to better understand who participates in rewards-based physical activity pro...

The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) was established in 1993. One of the first national programmes of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines, it has played a lead role internationally in many of the developments in guideline methodology. The challenges faced from the beginning of the organisation up to its integration into the National Health Service and how they were add...

Acknowledgements This study would not have been possible without the hundreds of people in the European Structural Funds Community who offered their insights, provided data and information. The project team would like to thank all those who gave freely their time to support this work, including the representatives of the national administrations in charge of the coordination of the Structural F...

Programmes that provide no-fault compensation for an adverse event following vaccination have been implemented in 19 countries worldwide, the first in Germany in 1961 and the most recent in Hungary in 2005. We performed a review of these programmes and determined elements that were common to all of them: administration and funding, eligibility, process and decision-making, standard of proof, el...

In 2008, a compulsory national basic teaching qualification was introduced for all university teachers in the Netherlands. At that time all eight University Medical Centres (UMCs) and the only Faculty of Veterinary Medicine had adopted or were setting up teacher development programmes. This study explores how these programmes relate to each other and to the basic teaching qualification. To gath...

There has been considerable evolution in epilepsy healthcare for children over the last decade in the United Kingdom. There has been no single explanation for this. The development of national clinical guidelines, locally delivered but nationally designed educational programmes, nation-wide clinical audit, clinical networks and development of designated services have all had complimentary roles...

INTRODUCTION In this article we describe the history and present state of integrated care for people with depression in the Netherlands. The central question is: what are the developments in integrated care for people with depression in the Netherlands? METHODS WE DESCRIBE THESE DEVELOPMENTS FROM THE ROLE OF AN OBSERVER, AND MAKE USE OF SEVERAL SOURCES: important Dutch policy documents and re...

INTRODUCTION Chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Ghana have caused significant illness and death in Ghana for many years. Yet, until recently, they have been neglected and not considered a health priority. This paper reviews the national policy and programme response to chronic NCDs over the period 1992 to 2009. METHODS Unpublished reports, documents, relevant files of the Ghana Healt...

Although it seems possible in a developing country context such as Kenya, given appropriate inputs and a sound approach, to shift a sexually transmitted disease (STI) epidemic from phase II to III, it is not entirely clear how to go beyond this stage, to low levels of endemicity or even elimination. Perhaps the most important challenge now is to expand STI treatment and community STI/HIV preven...