scholarly journals Global cancer control: responding to the growing burden, rising costs and inequalities in access

ESMO Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. e000285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald W Prager ◽  
Sofia Braga ◽  
Branislav Bystricky ◽  
Camilla Qvortrup ◽  
Carmen Criscitiello ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Care ◽  
National Level ◽  
Cancer Control ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Cancer Burden ◽  
Quality Cancer Care ◽  
World Health Assembly Resolution

The cancer burden is rising globally, exerting significant strain on populations and health systems at all income levels. In May 2017, world governments made a commitment to further invest in cancer control as a public health priority, passing the World Health Assembly Resolution 70.12 on cancer prevention and control within an integrated approach. In this manuscript, the 2016 European Society for Medical Oncology Leadership Generation Programme participants propose a strategic framework that is in line with the 2017 WHO Cancer Resolution and consistent with the principle of universal health coverage, which ensures access to optimal cancer care for all people because health is a basic human right. The time for action is now to reduce barriers and provide the highest possible quality cancer care to everyone regardless of circumstance, precondition or geographic location. The national actions and the policy recommendations in this paper set forth the vision of its authors for the future of global cancer control at the national level, where the WHO Cancer Resolution must be implemented if we are to reduce the cancer burden, avoid unnecessary suffering and save as many lives as possible.

scholarly journals Joint Action on cancer iPAAC - building on experience and streamlining recommendations for the future

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
M Jelenc ◽  
T Albreht
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Care ◽  
National Level ◽  
Cancer Control ◽  
Professional Community ◽  
The Other ◽  
Consensus Building ◽  
Good Practices ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
European Code ◽  
And Control

Abstract Background Policy initiatives, proposals and projects often end up proposing solutions and/or measures that are eventually either not or only partially implemented or they are lacking a system, which would consistently evaluate their implementation and/or impact. Good solutions are often not visible enough to the broader professional community and it is important to identify certain outstanding challenges in cancer control and policy. Driven by the need to better use the outputs from projects on cancer policy, European Commission was trying to address two challenges - one was in solving the problems with the implementation and use of the solutions that have already been proposed and the other one in identifying the outstanding challenges in cancer policy. Results We have decided to follow the structure to develop a series of recommendations and examples of good practices at the national level by selected areas. These would be streamlined into a roadmap to support policymakers at the national and EU level in formulating their cancer policies. Three pairs of targeted recommendations have been identified: Cancer prevention, including health promotion, implementation of the European Code Against Cancer and the reshaping and extension of cancer registriesGenomics and immunotherapy in cancerChallenges in cancer care and governance of cancer control Conclusions Multinational collaboration can bring about important consensual solutions, which build on the existing good practices in the countries. This can be combined well with the existing work on specific areas, carried out both internationally and nationally. Consensus building on jointly defined challenges represents a task that appears to be resolved rather pragmatically. Key message It is important that advance in cancer care and control are quickly analysed and that policymakers receive up-to-date recommendations to improve their policies on cancer control.

scholarly journals The National Immunization Technical Advisory Group in Israel

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen Stein-Zamir ◽  
Shmuel Rishpon
Keyword(s):  
National Health ◽  
National Level ◽  
Vaccination Schedule ◽  
World Health ◽  
Advisory Group ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Ministry Of Health ◽  
Independent Evidence ◽  
Main Challenge ◽  
National Immunization

AbstractNational Immunization Technical Advisory Groups (NITAGs) are defined by the World Health Organization as multidisciplinary groups of health experts who are involved in the development of a national immunization policy. The NITAG has the responsibility to provide independent, evidence-informed advice to the policy makers and national programme managers, on policy issues and questions related to immunization and vaccines.This paper aims to describe the NITAG in Israel. The Israeli NITAG was established by the Ministry of Health in1974. The NITAG’s full formal name is “the Advisory Committee on Infectious Diseases and Immunizations in Israel”. The NITAG is charged with prioritizing choices while granting maximal significance to the national public health considerations. Since 2007, the full minutes of the NITAG’s meetings have been publicly available on the committee’s website (at the Ministry of Health website, in Hebrew).According to the National Health Insurance Law, all residents of Israel are entitled to receive universal health coverage. The health services basket includes routine childhood immunizations, as well as several adult and post - exposure vaccinations. The main challenge currently facing the NITAG is establishing a process for introducing new vaccines and updating the vaccination schedule through the annual update of the national health basket. In the context of the annual update, vaccines have to “compete” with multiple medications and technologies which are presented to the basket committee for inclusion in the national health basket. Over the years, the Israeli NITAG’s recommendations have proved essential for vaccine introduction and scheduling and for communicable diseases control on a national level. The NITAG has established structured and transparent working processes and a decision framework according to WHO standards, which is evidence-based and country-specific to Israel.The recent global COVID-19 pandemic is a major concern for all countries as well as a challenge for NITAGs. Currently, the NITAGs have a key role in advising both on sustainment of the routine immunization programs and on planning of the COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, with ongoing updates and collaboration with the Ministry of Health and health organizations.

scholarly journals Measuring the availability and geographical accessibility of maternal health services across sub-Saharan Africa

BMC Medicine ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. S. Wigley ◽  
N. Tejedor-Garavito ◽  
V. Alegana ◽  
A. Carioli ◽  
C. W. Ruktanonchai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Universal Health Coverage ◽  
National Level ◽  
District Level ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Availability Analysis ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Geographical Accessibility ◽  
Universal Health

Abstract Background With universal health coverage a key component of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, targeted monitoring is crucial for reducing inequalities in the provision of services. However, monitoring largely occurs at the national level, masking sub-national variation. Here, we estimate indicators for measuring the availability and geographical accessibility of services, at national and sub-national levels across sub-Saharan Africa, to show how data at varying spatial scales and input data can considerably impact monitoring outcomes. Methods Availability was estimated using the World Health Organization guidelines for monitoring emergency obstetric care, defined as the number of hospitals per 500,000 population. Geographical accessibility was estimated using the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery, defined as the proportion of pregnancies within 2 h of the nearest hospital. These were calculated using geo-located hospital data for sub-Saharan Africa, with their associated travel times, along with small area estimates of population and pregnancies. The results of the availability analysis were then compared to the results of the accessibility analysis, to highlight differences between the availability and geographical accessibility of services. Results Despite most countries meeting the targets at the national level, we identified substantial sub-national variation, with 58% of the countries having at least one administrative unit not meeting the availability target at province level and 95% at district level. Similarly, 56% of the countries were found to have at least one province not meeting the accessibility target, increasing to 74% at the district level. When comparing both availability and accessibility within countries, most countries were found to meet both targets; however sub-nationally, many countries fail to meet one or the other. Conclusion While many of the countries met the targets at the national level, we found large within-country variation. Monitoring under the current guidelines, using national averages, can mask these areas of need, with potential consequences for vulnerable women and children. It is imperative therefore that indicators for monitoring the availability and geographical accessibility of health care reflect this need, if targets for universal health coverage are to be met by 2030.

scholarly journals How can we make better health decisions: a Best Buy for all?

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1543
Author(s):  
Niki O'Brien ◽  
Ryan Li ◽  
Wanrudee Isaranuwatchai ◽  
Saudamini Vishwanath Dabak ◽  
Amanda Glassman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Priority Setting ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Health Spending ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Global Network ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
World Health Assembly Resolution ◽  
Provider Payment

The World Health Organization (WHO) resolution calling on Member States to work towards achieving universal health coverage (UHC) requires them to prioritize health spending. Prioritizing is even more important as low- and middle-income countries transition from external aid. Countries will have difficult decisions to make on how best to integrate and finance previously donor-funded technologies and health services into their UHC packages in ways that are efficient and equitable, and operationally and financially sustainable. The International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI) is a global network of health, policy and economic expertise which supports countries in making better decisions about how best to spend public money on healthcare. In May 2019, iDSI convened a roundtable entitled Why strengthening health systems to make better decisions is a Best Buy. The event brought together members of iDSI, development partners and other organizations working in the areas of evidence-informed priority-setting, resource allocation, and purchasing. The roundtable participants identified key challenges and activities that could be undertaken by the broader health technology assessment (HTA) community: •           to develop a new publication package on premium estimation and budgeting, actuarial calculations and risk adjustment, provider payment modalities and monitoring of quality in service delivery •           to call on the WHO to redouble its efforts in accordance with the 2014 Health Intervention and Technology Assessment (HITA) World Health Assembly resolution to support countries in developing priority setting and HTA institutionalization, and to lead by example through introducing robust HTA processes in its own workings •             to develop a single Theory of Change (ToC) for evidence-informed priority setting, to be agreed by the major organizations working in the areas of priority setting and HTA.

scholarly journals Accessibility to health services in Italy and in the world

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
G Marchetti ◽  
M Simonelli ◽  
M G Dente ◽  
M Marceca ◽  
S Declich
Keyword(s):  
Health Services ◽  
National Level ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Catastrophic Expenditure ◽  
The People ◽  
Workshop Training ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
University Of Rome

Abstract Background The Universal Health Coverage (UHC) proposes that an ideal health system must be able to extend the health coverage to the whole population (universality), to guarantee all the necessary services (globality) and to do it without additional direct costs for the people (free of charge). The achievement of the UHC represents the target 3.8 of the Sustainable Developed Goals. The World Health Organization and the World Bank have developed an index to monitor the UHC (an algorithm that contains 16 indicators of essential health services), while for financial protection they rely on the incidence of catastrophic expenditure on health (percentage of families in which the living expenses for health without reimbursement exceed the10% of consumption). Objectives To strengthen the Italian operators' knowledge about the accessibility to health services in Italy and in countries around the world utilizing the UHC index and the incidence of catastrophic expenditure. Results The National Center for Global Health of the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS) collected the documents and the data already produced and validated by the international scientific community. ISS in collaboration with the Department of Public Health and Infectious Disease of Sapienza University of Rome developed a workshop training program to bring the UHC concepts at national level in a simplified manner. This was developed in order to encourage a reflection and to strengthen the understanding of the complexity of the UHC. The framework and the program of the workshop will be presented during the conference. Conclusions Studying the UHC means focusing on the inequalities in health care. To increase the sensibility of professionals may be a resource to promote the health coverage for all in the national territory. Key messages Encouraging the discussion between professionals is possible to understand the complexity of the UHC. The achievement of the UHC may happen only through the improving of the knowledge about it.

scholarly journals Universal Access to Advanced Imaging and Healthcare Protection: UHC and Diagnostic Imaging

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Pietro Cappabianca ◽  
Gaetano Maria Russo ◽  
Umberto Atripaldi ◽  
Luigi Gallo ◽  
Maria Paola Rocco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Universal Access ◽  
National Level ◽  
World Health ◽  
World Population ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Diagnostic Standards ◽  
Access To Primary Care ◽  
Health Organization

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is a set of principles adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) aimed to guarantee access to primary care for the entire world population through a range of essential health services without neglecting the diagnostic aspect. Italy is one of the signatory states, which means that diagnostic services should be appropriated and exigible throughout the national territory equally. Our research analyzed and identified the main criticalities in terms of age, territorial distribution, and technological and health appropriateness of installed Computed Tomography (CT) needed to meet the principles of UHC. Data analyzed in our study were published by Assobiomedica at the end of 2016 and by COCIR, which included and investigated the installed fleet of diagnostic equipment in the Italian sanitary system and in various European countries. The 6th point of the Alma Ata Declaration defines the concept of “primary health care”, which includes the importance of the diagnostic phase in the Italian health care system to provide Essential Levels of Assistance (LEA). It is clear from our studies that the technology at the national level is not adequate to satisfy the UHC principles or the European criteria, with negative effects on the diagnostic standards and on advanced screenings. This study conducted on the installed CTs in Italy at the end of 2016 confirms the persistence of progressive aging that has been recorded for several years in the health facilities of the country and suggests incentive policies for the replacement of obsolete equipment, which represent a form of investment rather than a cost, due to the nature of the expenditure itself, one-off and amortizable over time.

scholarly journals Fostering a Multisectoral Approach in the Fight Against Cancer in Uganda: The Launch of the National Cancer Symposium

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement 2) ◽  
pp. 159s-159s
Author(s):  
D. Olodi ◽  
P. Asiimwe ◽  
P. Ebusu
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
National Level ◽  
Panel Discussion ◽  
Cancer Control ◽  
World Health ◽  
Media Campaigns ◽  
Team Meetings ◽  
Program Policy ◽  
New Vision ◽  
Fight Against Cancer

Background and context: The 70th World Health Assembly Cancer Resolution was passed in May 2017. In Uganda, there is a clear need for social mobilization and to involve all stakeholders in the process of implementing the Cancer Resolution. The National Cancer Symposium (NCS) was launched on the 28th February 2018 to create an inclusive process where all sectors and stakeholders are engaged in the dialogue and processes leading to effective cancer control in Uganda. Aim: To build a systematic and impactful response to cancer epidemic in Uganda through a multisectoral approach. Strategy/Tactics: These included but not limited to; partnership through the TWG, media campaigns, lobbying, team meetings and panel/plenary discussions. Program/Policy process: NCS is an annual joint stakeholder event that will foster stakeholders' discussion and stock taking of progress made toward implementation of cancer control efforts. A Technical Working Group (TWG) comprised of representation from government, WHO, civil society, academia, professional bodies and international partners, has been constituted to lead the planning, coordination and execution. Outcomes: Increased collaboration and partnerships built among partners as demonstrated in commitment for joint cancer control efforts. A total of over 300 participants attended the event representing different agencies including religious groups, private sector, media, policy makers, government ministries and departments, civil society, development partners, cancer survivors and patients, and the general public. Wider publicity gained as over 3 national level newspapers ( New Vision, The Observer, and The Monitor publications) run the story about NCS. A total of 1028 people reacted to our posts on Facebook with 41 likes, 40 post clicks and 2 shares. The Prime Minister re-echoed the restoration of radiotherapy services and made commitment on the procurement of more radiotherapy equipment as the construction of the new bunker progresses. The panel discussion led to the recognition that cancer control requires a multisectoral approach if interventions are to become more effective. Deliberations at the panel discussions re-echoed the need for the population to be sensitive to the risk factors including tobacco usage, body activity, proper diet with emphasis on vegetables and fiber, among others. What was learned: We learned that through coalescing with stakeholders, we are able to come up with a much stronger voice. The working of the TWG of this symposium is a clear testimony to this. We also learned that the media is an important partner for greater visibility to be realized. There is great need for continuous engagement among stakeholders to influence policy decisions and general intervention in the fight against cancer.

"Does better understanding of cancer care needs impact outcomes...?" The experiences of the Kigali City Cancer Challenge innovation.

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e19016-e19016
Author(s):  
Christian Ruchaho Ntizimira
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Treatment ◽  
Cancer Care ◽  
World Health ◽  
Depth Information ◽  
African City ◽  
Care Needs ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Quality Cancer Care ◽  
The World ◽  
Innovative Solution

e19016 Background: Launched in January 2017 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, City Cancer Challenge (C/Can) is a multisectoral initiative supporting cities to take the lead in the design, planning, and implementation of cancer treatment solutions. C/Can serves as a unique platform to increase the number of people with access to quality cancer care in cities through a truly multisectoral approach. With access to both technical and financial resources, cities are supported to strengthen their capacity, leadership, and accountability in the delivery of cancer care, and engage in the design and implementation of cancer treatment and care solutions that meet the needs of their population. In 2018 during the World Health Assembly, the City of Kigali has been selected as the first African City Cancer Challenge alongside with Porto-Alegre from Brazil. Methods: The Needs Assessment questionnaire was designed to provide in-depth information on the delivery of cancer treatment and care services in a city. The objective is to generate systematic and reliable data on the availability. Results: Conclusions: The Kigali C/Can has developed an innovative solution from adapted from Rwandan patients, by Rwandan patients and for Rwandan patients through a city process which include a multi-sectorial decision-makers that was not happened before. [Table: see text]

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