(Public) Health Care Systems in the EU

Full course description

This module aims at analysing and comparing the organization of health systems and health care reforms in the EU through the lens of health systems frameworks.

The module starts with health system theory in week 1, with special attention to the WHO building blocks. In monitoring the WHO building blocks of health systems, health system financing, alongside accompanying indicators and measurement strategies will be the focus of weeks 2 - 4. Developments in insurance schemes, health care markets, and access to health care, will be discussed through the lens of comparisons and classifications of health system structures in the EU. 

• Weeks 5 - 8 will focus on fundamental concepts of health systems within the key reform trends of health systems that are integrated within the WHO building blocks listed below:
• Week 5:Value-based health systems. From a focus on the volume and profitability of services provided – physician visits, hospitalizations, procedures, and tests to a system based on patient outcomes achieved (value-based payment models).
• Week 6: Integrated health systems: From fragmented health systems, in which every local provider offers a full range of services (silos) to systems organized, in which services for particular medical conditions are concentrated in health delivery organizations and in the right locations to deliver high-value care (integrated care networks). 
• Weeks 7 - 8: Health information systems: the role of artificial intelligence in health care, leveraging health data and analytics, precision and personalized medicine, to name a few. In summary, how to build an enabling information technology platform in European health systems based on a value agenda? From knowledge-driven towards data-driven health systems.
• Weeks 7 - 8: Health system resilience. Building a health system involves ensuring that strategic health system frameworks exist and are combined with effective oversight, coalition-building, regulation, attention to system design and accountability. Health system resilience is also related to health shocks, such as the current pandemic.