Containing costs in the Italian local healthcare market

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 1001-1014
Author(s):  
Andrea Riganti
Author(s):  
Alan Baron ◽  
John Hassard ◽  
Fiona Cheetham ◽  
Sudi Sharifi

This chapter looks ‘outside’ the Hospice at issues of the organization’s image. The authors talked to staff, volunteers, and members of the general public, as well as to a number of key stakeholders in the local healthcare community, in order to gauge their views on the host organization. The analysis examines the problems associated with the image of hospices and discusses attempts of staff and volunteers to ‘dispel the myths’ about the nature of hospice care work—a form of labour which potentially runs the risk of being characterized as ‘dirty work’. The chapter then examines how the Hospice is seen in the eyes of other healthcare professionals and discusses the choice of palliative medicine as a career for junior medics. Finally it discusses a degree of ‘confusion’ that staff and volunteers claim exists in the minds of GPs and consultants in specialist cancer hospitals about the role of hospices.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
E Bossi ◽  
M Tringali ◽  
P Colombo ◽  
C Mazzali ◽  
G Puleo ◽  
...  

Abstract Issue With population aging, increased demand for healthcare and limited availability of economic and human resources, well-functioning and sustainable health systems have to rely on rigorous and evidence-based assessments of complex technologies' clinical effectiveness and safety. The Lombardy Region in Northern Italy has a well-established HTA program that offers technical support to its hospitals' network to produce and to review Health Technology Assessment (HTA) reports. Description of the Problem To better coordinate the HTA network and to reduce self-referencing of University and Community hospitals, Lombardy Region carried out an intense field training and distance learning from year 2017, with a project aimed at involving health care professionals in an accurate evaluation of technologies in 18 HTA reports. The regional HTA Supporting Centre developed a Toolkit for the critical appraisal of reports and supporting literature to improve the quality of hospital-based reports. Results In compliance with the regional Law DGR XI/1046 17.12.2018 and the framework proposed, during year 2019 hospitals used the Toolkit to help writing complete and good quality HTA reports on 37 different technologies. With a Public Health resident internship, the Toolkit was revised, extended and then used in 2020 by the hospital's HTA network during the double blinded peer review, mandated by the regional Law DGR XI/2672 16.12.2019, of the year 2019 HTA reports. Detailed results will be presented at the conference. Lessons We observed an increase in number of HTA reports from 2018 to 2019, a greater language's and format's homogeneity and an improvement in the quality of some reports, which will be submitted to the Regional HTA Committee for appraisal and reimbursement. Key messages The development and use of a Critical Appraisal Toolkit in an Regional HTA program can help hospitals write complete and good quality HTA reports. A centrally supported quality improvement of distributed assessment activities in a network of hospitals can enhance the production of HTA reports, relevant to the needs of a local healthcare system.


Author(s):  
Alexander Gleiss ◽  
Marco Kohlhagen ◽  
Key Pousttchi

AbstractThe healthcare industry has been slow to adopt new technologies and practices. However, digital and data-enabled innovations diffuse the market, and the COVID-19 pandemic has recently emphasized the necessity of a fundamental digital transformation. Available research indicates the relevance of digital platforms in this process but has not studied their economic impact to date. In view of this research gap and the social and economic relevance of healthcare, we explore how digital platforms might affect value creation in this market with a particular focus on Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft (GAFAM). We rely on value network analyses to examine how GAFAM platforms introduce new value-creating roles and mechanisms in healthcare through their manifold products and services. Hereupon, we examine the GAFAM-impact on healthcare by scrutinizing the facilitators, activities, and effects. Our analyses show how GAFAM platforms multifacetedly untie conventional relationships and transform value creation structures in the healthcare market.


Author(s):  
S.I. Agasieva ◽  
E.A. Smetanin ◽  
A.R. Vechkanov ◽  
A.V. Gubanov

Statement of the problem of this article - one of the most important problems is protection from especially dangerous infectious diseases. The use of biosensors in clinical trials will significantly reduce the time for obtaining the results of analyzes, thereby speeding up the appointment of treatment to patients. The purpose of the article is to present modern designs of biosensors based on gallium nitride, the possibilities of their application and characteristics. Consider the principles of operation, areas of application and characteristics. As a result, the design of modern biosensors and modern trends in their use from various sources of literature in recent years are shown. Biosensors, principles of their action, areas of application and characteristics are considered, which will reduce the possible socio-economic damage from temporary disability for sick citizens due to the rapid and timely implementation of anti-epidemic measures. Practical value: the proposed biosensors are of interest as devices for detecting diseases. The use of biosensors in clinical disease research has several potential advantages over other clinical analysis methods, including increased analysis speed and flexibility, multipurpose analysis capability, automation, reduced diagnostic testing costs, and the ability to integrate molecular diagnostic tests into local healthcare systems.


2017 ◽  
Vol 113 (5/6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kylie de Jager ◽  
Chipo Chimhundu ◽  
Trust Saidi ◽  
Tania S. Douglas ◽  
◽  
...  

A characterisation of the medical device development landscape in South Africa would be beneficial for future policy developments that encourage locally developed devices to address local healthcare needs. The landscape was explored through a bibliometric analysis (2000–2013) of relevant scientific papers using co-authorship as an indicator of collaboration. Collaborating institutions thus found were divided into four sectors: academia (A); healthcare (H); industry (I); and science and support (S). A collaboration network was drawn to show the links between the institutions and analysed using network analysis metrics. Centrality measures identified seven dominant local institutions from three sectors. Group densities were used to quantify the extent of collaboration: the A sector collaborated the most extensively both within and between sectors; local collaborations were more prevalent than international collaborations. Translational collaborations (AHI, HIS or AHIS) are considered to be pivotal in fostering medical device innovation that is both relevant and likely to be commercialised. Few such collaborations were found, suggesting room for increased collaboration of these types in South Africa.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. e000398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Meredith ◽  
Robert Ekman ◽  
Robert Thomson

ObjectivesHead injuries are the leading cause of death in horse-related injury events and, even since the introduction of helmets, represent a sizeable proportion of all horse-related injuries. Falls from horseback and kicks to the head are the most frequent type of incident causing head injuries, but it is unknown whether these incidents are predictors of head injury. This study aimed to investigate head injuries and the association between incident type and head injury.MethodRetrospective review of 7815 horse-related injury events was conducted. Data were gathered from hospitals, local healthcare centres and public dental services in Skaraborg, Sweden. Binary logistic regression was used to analyse the association between the incident type and occurrence of head injury while controlling for risk factors.ResultsApproximately 20% of riders sustained a head injury, mostly soft tissue injuries (56.3%) and concussions (33.4%). A fall from or with the horse was the primary cause of head injury (63.9%). Those who fell from a carriage or other height or who were injured through contact with the horse had no difference in the likelihood of head injury when compared with those that fell from or with the horse. However, those who sustained an injury without any horse contact had lower odd of head injury (OR: 0.640, p<0.00005, 95% CI 0.497 to 0.734). Additionally, the older the rider, the lower the odds of head injury (OR=0.989, p<0.00005, 95% CI 0.985 to 0.993).ConclusionImproved protection for those suffering falls from horseback as well as those who are kicked in the head should be investigated.


2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 354-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Paul ◽  
Maria W Merritt ◽  
Jeremy Sugarman

Ethics guidance increasingly recognises that researchers and sponsors have obligations to consider provisions for post-trial access (PTA) to interventions that are found to be beneficial in research. Yet, there is little information regarding whether and how such plans can actually be implemented. Understanding practical experiences of developing and implementing these plans is critical to both optimising their implementation and informing conceptual work related to PTA. This viewpoint is informed by experiences with developing and implementing PTA plans for six large-scale multicentre HIV prevention trials supported by the HIV Prevention Trials Network. These experiences suggest that planning and implementing PTA often involve challenges of planning under uncertainty and confronting practical barriers to accessing healthcare systems. Even in relatively favourable circumstances where a tested intervention medication is approved and available in the local healthcare system, system-level barriers can threaten the viability of PTA plans. The aggregate experience across these HIV prevention trials suggests that simply referring participants to local healthcare systems for PTA will not necessarily result in continued access to beneficial interventions for trial participants. Serious commitments to PTA will require additional efforts to learn from future approaches, measuring the success of PTA plans with dedicated follow-up and further developing normative guidance to help research stakeholders navigate the complex practical challenges of realising PTA.


Author(s):  
Devendra Verma ◽  
Michelle Previtera ◽  
Rene Schloss ◽  
Noshir Langrana

Adhesions are abnormal fibrous connections between tissues and can occur following virtually any type of surgery (1). They are often painful and can severely disrupt normal organ function. The incidence of adhesions following surgery is very high; some estimate an incidence as high as 80%. Thus, the prevention of adhesions has the potential to save the healthcare market billions of dollars and improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of patients.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document