Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2022Comparative Health Systems Analysis of Differences in Catastrophic Health Expenditure
The growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in low- and middle-income countries may have implications …
The growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in low- and middle-income countries may have implications for health system performance in the area of financial risk protection, as measured by catastrophic health expenditure (CHE). This article compares non-communicable diseases catastrophic health expenditure to the CHE cases caused by communicable diseases across health systems to examine whether: (1) disease burden and catastrophic health expenditure are linked, (2) Catastrophic health expenditures secondary to NCDs disproportionately affect wealthier households and (3) whether the drivers…
Costing Methods | Health Systems | Evidence Synthesis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Global -
ArticlePublication 2022Hospital Closures amid COVID-19
The recent trend of hospital closures in the US has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, …
The recent trend of hospital closures in the US has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, as hospitals have experienced financial hardship from reduced patient volume and elective surgery cases, as well as the thin financial margins for treating patients with COVID-19. This trend of hospital closures is concerning for patients, healthcare providers, and policymakers. This current opinion piece describes the challenges caused by hospital closures and discusses what policymakers should know based on the existing…
Operations Research | Health Systems | Health/Medicine | North America -
ArticlePublication 2021Employee Health Plans Powered by Analytics
This article describes a business model for the employee health plans of large firms to …
This article describes a business model for the employee health plans of large firms to bypass insurers and instead use direct contracts with hospitals which have been designated as centers of excellence. The authors propose methods of machine learning and data analytics to identify efficient and effective delivery systems, with the ultimate goal of improving health care quality.
Operations Research | Health Systems | North America -
ArticlePublication 2014Step-by-Step Guideline for Disease-Specific Costing Studies in LMIC
Disease-specific costing studies can be used as input into cost-effectiveness analyses and provide important information …
Disease-specific costing studies can be used as input into cost-effectiveness analyses and provide important information for efficient resource allocation. This paper provides a step-by-step guideline for conducting disease-specific costing studies in LMICs where data availability is limited and illustrates how the guideline was applied in a costing study of cardiovascular disease prevention care in rural Nigeria. The step-by-step guideline provides practical recommendations on methods and data requirements for six sequential steps: 1) definition of the study…
Costing Methods | Health Systems | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa -
ArticlePublication 2022Healthcare Cost of Overweight & Obesity in South Africa
This analysis estimates the healthcare cost associated with treatment of weight-related conditions from the perspective …
This analysis estimates the healthcare cost associated with treatment of weight-related conditions from the perspective of the South African public sector payer. The authors report that the total cost of overweight and obesity is estimated to be ZAR33,194 million in 2020, representing approximately 15% of government health expenditure and equivalent to 0.67% of GDP. This analysis is an example of a bottom-up gross costing approach. The study draws South African data from multiple sources to estimate…
Costing Methods | Health Systems | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa -
ArticlePublication 2020Online Competition between Pro- and Anti-Vaccination Views
Distrust in scientific expertise is dangerous. Opposition to vaccination with a future vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, …
Distrust in scientific expertise is dangerous. Opposition to vaccination with a future vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the causal agent of COVID-19, for example, could amplify outbreaks as happened for measles in 2019. Homemade remedies and falsehoods are being shared widely on the Internet, as well as dismissals of expert advice. There is a lack of understanding about how this distrust evolves at the system level. Authors provide a map of the contention surrounding vaccines that has…
Preferences/Values | Health Systems | Decision Psychology | Infectious Diseases | Social Determinants | Policy/Regulation | Culture/Society | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | North America -
ArticlePublication 2020Incorporating Perspective into Clinical Decisions
Part of a six-part series of articles on clinical decision making, in this article, the …
Part of a six-part series of articles on clinical decision making, in this article, the authors discuss how to incorporate perspective into clinical decisions, explicitly acknowledging that the treating physician is not the only stakeholder in these decisions. The authors use 2 case studies to demonstrate how changes in perspective can alter the clinical decision as well lead to both intended and unintended consequences to the outcomes.
Preferences/Values | Health Systems | Priority Setting/Ethics | Health Outcomes | Clinical Care | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2019Modelling Hospital Operations from Paper Registry Data
This article, published in BMJ Global Health, aims to evaluate operations management techniques, which are …
This article, published in BMJ Global Health, aims to evaluate operations management techniques, which are underutilized in the Ethiopian health system. Previous research has outlined the limitations of paper-based patient records, but few studies have examined their potential utility for improving management of hospital operations. The authors use data collected from paper registries in an Ethiopian obstetrics ward at Addis Ababa’s Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia’s largest university hospital, to model the ward’s operations. The…
Operations Research | Health Systems | Mathematical Models | Maternal/Reproductive Health | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa -
ArticlePublication 2018Trading Bankruptcy for Health: A Discrete-Choice Experiment
This article in Value in Health evaluates the importance of improved health as compared to …
This article in Value in Health evaluates the importance of improved health as compared to improved financial risk protection in the general United States population. Using a discrete-choice experiment, it finds that 31.3% of the population values cure at all costs, and 8.5% of the population use financial solvency to dominate medical decision making. This study shares insight to the US population values and trade-offs between health outcomes and financial health, and highlights the difficult…
Preferences/Values | Health Systems | Priority Setting/Ethics | Health Outcomes | Culture/Society | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | North America