Fostering healthcare innovation in public hospitals: the Queensland experience

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 672
Author(s):  
Linda Mundy ◽  
Sarah Howard ◽  
Liam McQueen ◽  
Jacqui Thomson ◽  
Kaye Hewson

Faced with scarce resources and a demand for health care that exceeds supply, health policy makers at all levels of government need to adopt some form of rationing when deciding which health services should be funded in the public health system. With a relatively small investment, programs such as Queensland Health’s New Technology Funding Evaluation Program (NTFEP) fosters innovation by providing funding and pilot studies for new and innovative healthcare technologies. The NTFEP assists policy makers to make informed decisions regarding investments in new safe and effective technologies based on available evidence gathered from real-world settings relevant to Queensland patients and clinicians. In addition, the NTFEP allows appropriate patient access, especially in rural and remote locations, to potentially beneficial technologies and acts a gatekeeper, protecting them from technologies that may be detrimental or harmful. What is known about the topic? Jurisdictions have struggled to identify ways to manage the introduction of new and innovative health technologies into clinical practice. The 2009 review of health technology in Australia recommended better assessment and appraisal by ensuring real-life practices in hospitals and community settings were considered, with a consumer and patient focus. What does this paper add? Queensland Health’s NTFEP provides a robust and transparent mechanism to manage the introduction of innovative healthcare technologies into clinical practice, providing an opportunity to collect real-world data outside of formal clinical trials. These data can not only be used to inform clinical, but also purchasing, decision-making within the public health system. This model of investment and innovation has the potential to be implemented in other jurisdictions and provide opportunities to share learnings. What are the implications for practitioners? Programs such as the NTFEP provide reassurance to practitioners and patients alike that innovative healthcare technologies are adopted in public hospitals using an evidence-based approach after demonstrating that they are not only safe and clinically effective, but represent value for money and improved patient outcomes in a public health system.

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (S1) ◽  
pp. 57-58
Author(s):  
Kathiaja Souza ◽  
Flavia Salomon ◽  
Artur Felipe de Brito

Introduction:The National Committee for Health Technology Incorporation (CONITEC) has a structured process for the incorporation, disinvestment, or alteration of different health technologies in the Brazilian public health system and provides technical support for the decision-making process. Since its creation, CONITEC has received several submissions for the incorporation of medicines and the update of clinical practice guidelines for multiple sclerosis (MS). Nowadays, more than twelve different therapies are currently available to treat MS and the Brazilian clinical practice guideline, which was last updated in 2015, offers six medicines to treat MS that are divided into first, second, and third line treatments. The purpose of this study was to describe CONITEC's assessments of applications for incorporation, disinvestment, or alteration of medicines for MS.Methods:A case study method was used to evaluate information, retrieved from CONITEC's database, about the health technology reports developed by CONITEC's Executive Secretariat in response to applications received in the period from 2012 to 2017.Results:Ten technical reports on health technologies for MS were produced by CONITEC during the study period. This number represented four percent of the external submissions for incorporation of technologies for several clinical conditions in the public health system. Six medicines were evaluated. The highest number of submissions were for incorporation (n = 6), followed by alteration of treatment lines (n = 3), and disinvestment (n = 1); fifty percent of the submissions were not recommended. The main reasons for rejection were low or unproven efficacy, high budget impact, and inadequacy of the proposal based on the evidence presented. CONITEC's favorable recommendations caused a profound change in the current clinical practice guideline and had a significant impact on the health system.Conclusions:MS is considered a rare disease in Brazil, but there is significant pressure from society to provide better treatment options that will impact the MS scenario in the health system. The recent CONITEC assessments have led to a revolution in the treatment of MS in Brazil, which is now in the process of being updated.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anant Dinesh ◽  
Taha Mallick ◽  
Tatiana M. Arreglado ◽  
Brian L. Altonen ◽  
Ryan Engdahl

Introduction: In the initial pandemic regional differences may have existed in COVID-19 hospitalizations and patient outcomes in New York City. Whether these patterns were present in public hospitals is unknown. The aim of this brief study was to investigate COVID-19 hospitalizations and outcomes in the public health system during the initial pandemic response.Methods: A retrospective review was conducted on COVID-19 admissions in New York City public hospitals during the exponential phase of the pandemic. All data were collected from an integrated electronic medical records system (Epic Health Systems, Verona, WI). Overall, 5,422 patients with at least one admission each for COVID-19 were reviewed, with a study of demographic characteristics (including age, gender, race, BMI), pregnancy status, comorbidities, facility activity, and outcomes. Data related to hospitalization and mortality trends were also collected from City of New York website. These data often involved more than one facility and/or service line resulting in more location or treatment facility counts than patients due to utilization of services at more than one location and transfers between locations and facilities.Results: Higher mortality was associated with increasing age with the highest death rate (51.9%) noted in the age group >75 years (OR 7.88, 95%CI 6.32–10.08). Comorbidities with higher mortality included diabetes (OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.33–1.70), hypertension (OR 1.62, 95% CI 1.44–1.83), cardiovascular conditions (OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.47–1.87), COPD (OR 1.86, 95% CI 1.39–2.50). It was deduced that 20% of all New York City COVID-19 positive admissions were in public health system during this timeframe. A high proportion of admissions (21.26%) and deaths (19.93%) were at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens. Bellevue and Metropolitan Hospitals had the lowest number of deaths, both in borough of Manhattan. Mortality in public hospitals in Brooklyn was 29.9%, Queens 28.1%, Manhattan 20.4%.Conclusion: Significant variations existed in COVID-19 hospitalizations and outcomes in the public health system in New York City during the initial pandemic. Although outcomes are worse with older age and those with comorbidities, variations in hospitals and boroughs outside of Manhattan are targets to investigate and strategize efforts.


2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 676
Author(s):  
Kate E. McBride ◽  
Daniel Steffens ◽  
Michael J. Solomon ◽  
Teresa Anderson ◽  
Jane Young ◽  
...  

Objective Within Australia, robotic-assisted surgery (RAS) has largely been undertaken within the private sector, and predominately based within urology. This is rapidly developing, with RAS becoming increasingly prevalent across surgical specialties and within public hospitals. At this point in time there is a need to consider how this generation of the technology can be appropriately and safely introduced into the public health system given its prohibitive costs and lack of high-level long-term evidence. Methods This paper describes a unique approach used to govern the establishment of a new RAS program within a large public tertiary referral hospital in Australia. This included the creation of a comprehensive governance framework that covered research, training and operational components, with research being the ultimate gatekeeper to accessing the technology. Results Taking this novel approach, both benefits and challenges were encountered. Although initially there was a trade-off of activity to enable time for the research program to be developed, it was found the model strengthened patient safety in introducing the technology, fostered a breadth of surgical speciality involvement, ensured uniformity of data collection and, in the longer term, will enable a significant contribution to be made to the evidence regarding the appropriateness of RAS being used across several surgical specialties. Conclusions There is potential for this comprehensive governance framework to be transferred to other public hospitals commencing or with existing RAS programs and to be applied to the introduction of other new and expensive surgical technology. What is known about the topic? RAS is rapidly evolving and becoming increasingly prevalent across surgical specialities in major public hospitals. Consequently, it is important that this new technology is safely and appropriately implemented into the public health system. What does this paper add? This article describes the benefits and implementation challenges of a novel RAS approach, including a comprehensive governance framework that covered research, training and operational components, with research being the ultimate gatekeeper to accessing the technology. What are the implications for practitioners? This comprehensive governance framework can be transferred to other public hospitals introducing, or already using, new and expensive surgical technology.


2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. A224
Author(s):  
J.A. Turri ◽  
L.B. Haddad ◽  
W. Andrauss ◽  
L.A. D’Albuquerque ◽  
M.A. Diniz

Author(s):  
Paulo Gabriel Santos Campos de Siqueira ◽  
Alexandre Calumbi Antunes de Oliveira ◽  
Heitor Oliveira Duarte ◽  
Márcio das Chagas Moura

We have developed a probabilistic model to quantify the risks of COVID-19 explosion in Brazil, the epicenter of COVID-19 in Latin America. By explosion, we mean an excessive number of new infections that would overload the public health system. We made predictions from July 12th to Oct 10th, 2020 for various containment strategies, including business as usual, stay at home (SAH) for young and elderly, flight restrictions among regions, gradual resumption of business and the compulsory wearing of masks. They indicate that: if a SAH strategy were sustained, there would be a negligible risk of explosion and the public health system would not be overloaded. For the other containment strategies, the scenario that combines the gradual resumption of business with the mandatory wearing of masks would be the most effective, reducing risk to considerable category. Should this strategy is applied together with the investment in more Intensive Care Unit beds, risk could be reduced to negligible levels. A sensitivity analysis sustained that risks would be negligible if SAH measures were adopted thoroughly.


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