background the inclusion of cost-effectiveness data, as a basis for priority setting rankings, is a distinguishing feature in the formulation of the swedish national guidelines. guidelines are generated with the direct intent to influence health policy and support decisions about the efficient allocation of scarce healthcare resources. certain medical conditions may be given higher priority ran...

with demand for health services continuing to grow as populations age and new technologies emerge to meet health needs, healthcare policy-makers are under constant pressure to set priorities, ie, to make choices about the health services that can and cannot be funded within available resources. in a recent paper, smith et al apply an influential policy studies framework – kingdon’s multiple str...

background maternal health remains a central policy concern in vietnam. with a commitment to achieving the millennium development goal (mdg) 5 target of maternal mortality rate (mmr) of 70/100 000 by 2015, the ministry of health (moh) issued the national plan for safe motherhood (npsm) 2003-2010. in 2008, reproductive health, including safe motherhood (sm) became a national health target progra...