Health Equity: June 2008

Monday, June 30, 2008

[EQ] Call for Abstracts: Medical Education for the 21st Century: Teaching for Health Equity

Medical Education for the 21^st Century: Teaching for Health Equity - Call for Abstracts

November 30-December 3, 2008

Havana, Cuba

Website: http://siglo21.sld.cu – URL English: http://siglo21.sld.cu/index.php?s=6&p=6

To achieve health care that responds to the needs and hopes of people around the world, especially those of marginalized and discriminated populations.

Jointly Sponsored & Organized by

Ministry of Public Health of Cuba, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), Latin American Association of Social Medicine (ALAMES), Latin American Federation of Medical Schools (ALAFEM), International Association of Health Policy (IAHP), National Council of Scientific Societies in Health, Cuba

Endorsed by Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba (MEDICC), Teaching for Health Equity Network (THEnet), Global Health Education Consortium (GHEC)

Abstract Deadline: September 1, 2008

Languages: English and Spanish Abstract online submission: http://siglo21.sld.cu

Papers may be from a country-specific, regional, or global perspective. Submissions from international collaborations are encouraged.

CONFERENCE THEMES:

New Paradigms and Tendencies in Medical Education

§ New paradigms and tendencies aimed at achieving health equity, relevance and quality in health care.

§ Training of human resources in health for public service: knowledge, competencies, commitment

§ Recruitment of medical students: who are the doctors of the future?

§ In-service training: primary health care as an academic setting

§ Integrative medicine in health sciences curricula

Medical Education and Society

§ Physicians as teachers: impact in development of interdisciplinary teams

§ Instilling ethics and values

§ The role of social sciences in medical education

§ Research as a curricular element: best practices and experiences in medical sciences

§ Social determinants of health: guiding strategy in the education of human resources for health

§ Education of leaders for health management

Quality in Medical Education

§ Quality control, evaluation and accreditation systems for medical education: towards regional accords for cross-border competency standards and recognition of medical and health sciences degrees

§ Observatory projects: impact of training in health outcomes

The Health Professions: Educating for Health Equity

§ Training of human resources in the health professions, geared towards achieving health equity, relevance and quality in health care. (This commission will discuss training in the health professions other than medicine.)

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         This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
         information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
         health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
         Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues. [DD/ KMS Area]

         “Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is". Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
         and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
         Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members”.
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[EQ] What impact do prescription drug charges have on efficiency and equity

What impact do prescription drug charges have on efficiency and equity?
Evidence from high-income countries

Marin C Gemmill , Sarah Thomson and Elias Mossialos

LSE Health, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK

International Journal for Equity in Health 2008, 7:12doi:10.1186/1475-9276-7-12

Available online at: http://www.equityhealthj.com/content/7/1/12

“….As pharmaceutical expenditure continues to rise, third-party payers in most high-income countries have increasingly shifted the burden of payment for prescription drugs to patients. A large body of literature has examined the relationship between prescription charges and outcomes such as expenditure, use, and health, but few reviews explicitly link cost sharing for prescription drugs to efficiency and equity.

This article reviews 173 studies from 15 high-income countries and discusses their implications for important issues sometimes ignored in the literature; in particular, the extent to which prescription charges contain health care costs and enhance efficiency without lowering equity of access to care….”

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[EQ] Surgical Volume Trends, 2008 Within and Beyond Wait Time Priority Areas

Surgical Volume Trends, 2008 Within and Beyond Wait Time Priority Areas

The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)

June 25, 2008 - ISBN 978-1-55465-280-8

Available online at:

http://secure.cihi.ca/cihiweb/dispPage.jsp?cw_page=download_form_e&cw_sku=SVT2008ENPDF&cw_ctt=1&cw_dform=N

In this report, CIHI reports on trends in the number of people having surgeries within First Ministers' wait times priority areas (cancer, heart, joint replacement, and sight restoration) as well as, trends in the numbers of people who had surgery for other reasons (outside priority areas). In addition, the report investigates the impact on physician consultations in the related surgical areas.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Recent Trends in Priority Procedures

Recent Trends in Procedures Outside Wait Time Priorities

Trends in Physician Consultations

What We Know, What We Don’t Know

Appendix 1—Provincial Trends in Procedure Volumes

Appendix 2—Data Sources, Methodology and Data Limitations for Surgical Volumes Analysis

Appendix 3—Data Sources and Methodology for Physician Consultation Analysis

References

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[EQ] Primer to Action: Social Determinants of Health

Primer to Action: Social Determinants of Health

Primer to Action: Social Determinants of Health is a collaborative project of the Ontario
Prevention Clearinghouse, the Ontario Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance and the Canadian Cancer Society Ontario Division.

Revised Edition May 2008

Available online PDF [49p.] at: http://www.healthnexus.ca/projects/PrimertoAction_May30.pdf

Primer to Action: Social Determinants of Health, is an electronic resource that helps us understand and influence how the social determinants of health impact chronic disease. Set in an electronic format, with hundreds of links and resources, it is a practical resource for busy health and community workers,

activists, in their capacity as staff, volunteers or community members.

Primer to Action provides a point of entry to understand and take action on six health determinants:
Income, Employment, Housing, Food Security, Education and Inclusion. It offers concrete suggestions for change in the community, the workplace and the broader society.

This new, improved and expanded second edition of the Primer provides:

- Expanded content on all six determinants of health

- New sections on how each determinant links to chronic disease

- Updated and wide-ranging links and resources from Canada and around the world

Contents:

About the Project

SDOH & Chronic Disease

Where do I fit in?

Adequate Income

Education

Employment

Housing

Food

Inclusion

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Friday, June 27, 2008

[EQ] The Rich Get Hungrier

The Rich Get Hungrier

By AMARTYA SEN

Published: May 28, 2008 Cambridge, Mass.

The New York Times - Op-Ed Contributor

Website: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/opinion/28sen.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

“………WILL the food crisis that is menacing the lives of millions ease up — or grow worse over time? The answer may be both. The recent rise in food prices has largely been caused by temporary problems like drought in Australia, Ukraine and elsewhere. Though the need for huge rescue operations is urgent, the present acute crisis will eventually end. But underlying it is a basic problem that will only intensify unless we recognize it and try to remedy it.

It is a tale of two peoples. In one version of the story, a country with a lot of poor people suddenly experiences fast economic expansion, but only half of the people share in the new prosperity. The favored ones spend a lot of their new income on food, and unless supply expands very quickly, prices shoot up. The rest of the poor now face higher food prices but no greater income, and begin to starve. Tragedies like this happen repeatedly in the world………..”

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[EQ] Economic costs of ill health in the European Region

Economic costs of ill health in the European Region

Marc Suhrcke, Regina Sauto Arce, Martin McKee and Lorenzo Rocco

World Health Organization and World Health Organization, on behalf of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies 2008

Available online as PDF file [26p.] at:

http://www.euro.who.int/document/hsm/1_hsc08_eBD1.pdf

“….Evidence on the economic costs of ill health (or, reversely, the benefits of good health) is essential in assessing the economic return on health investment. But

understanding what those costs/benefits mean and how they should be measured is equally essential. Public policy discourse on the economic consequences/costs of ill health has been handicapped by considerable confusion about what the term means. Noting that without an a priori definition of the cost concept at issue no meaningful discourse can ensue, we address three economic concepts.

1. The broadest, most relevant concept is social welfare costs/benefits, which attempts to capture the value people place on better health.

2. The more limited but more tangible concept, micro and macroeconomic costs, looks at, for instance, the foregone earnings of
individuals/households and the GDP losses countries incur, respectively, due to the ill health of a household member or the national population.

3. The most limited but nevertheless widely applied cost concept looks at the additional health-care expenditures that may be associated with ill health….”

Contents

Key messages

Executive summary

Economic costs of ill health in the European Region

1. Introduction

2. Broad perspective: social welfare costs

3. Limited perspective: micro- and macroeconomic costs

3.1 Microeconomic costs

3.2 Macroeconomic costs

4. Very limited perspective: health-care costs

5. Concluding remarks

References

Also:

Performance measurement for health system improvement: experiences, challenges and prospects (Summary) [pdf, 437KB]

Smith PC, Mossialos E, Leatherman S, Papanicolas I, eds. WHO/Europe, 2008

available in: fr[pdf, 334KB], de[pdf, 446KB], ru[pdf, 572KB]

Health systems, health and wealth – Assessing the case for investing in health systems (Summmary) [pdf, 568KB]

. Figueras J, McKee M, Lessof S, Duran A, Menabde N, eds. WHO/Europe, 2008

available in: fr[pdf, 105KB], de[pdf, 94KB], ru[pdf, 1MB]

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This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues. [DD/ KMS Area]

“Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is". Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members”.
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Equity List - Archives - Join/remove: http://listserv.paho.org/Archives/equidad.html

    IMPORTANT: This transmission is for use by the intended recipient and it may contain privileged, proprietary or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this transmission to the intended recipient, you may not disclose, copy or distribute this transmission or take any action in reliance on it. If you received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email to infosec@paho.org, and please dispose of and delete this transmission. Thank you.