Ninth Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy - Patients as Consumers: Making the Health Care System Our Own

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lansky
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoe Rose O'Neill

Dr. Danielle Martin is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto and Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Executive at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, where she is also a practicing family physician. Her career epitomizes an idea that is often discussed in medical training, but rarely manifests in practice: physicians are both advocates for individual patients and stewards of public health equity at a systems level. Dr. Martin has dedicated her career to improving and strengthening Canada’s universal health care system. She is a public leader in the ongoing debate about health care privatization and founded the organization Canadian Doctors for Medicare. Notably, Dr. Martin spoke about Canadian health care and advocated for single-payer health care in a widely publicized US Senate hearing led by Senator Bernie Sanders. She has also published a book titled, Better Now: Six Big Ideas to Improve Health Care for All Canadians, which breaks down complex health policy into six actionable steps in order to improve the health care system for all Canadians. She continuously advocates for public involvement in health policy through research and public outreach and is a role model for young physicians aspiring to leadership roles in health and health care policy, while simultaneously pursuing a career in clinical practice. In fact, doing both provides a unique framework for improving the individual wellbeing and health of Canadians. Dr. Martin believes that advocacy is a skill that requires practice and training; she advises young trainees that the time to start is now.  


2009 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Burström

In international comparisons, the Swedish health care system has been seen to perform well. In recent years, market-oriented, demand-driven health care reforms aimed at free choice of provider by patients and free establishment of doctors are increasingly promoted in Sweden. The stated objective is to improve access and efficiency in health services and to provide more and/or better services for the money. Swedish health policy aims to provide equal access to care, based on equal need. However, the social and economic gradient in disease and ill health does not translate into the same social and economic gradient in demand for health services. A market-oriented, demand-driven health care system runs the risk of defeating the health policy aims and of further increasing gaps between social groups in access and utilization of health care services, to the detriment of those with greater needs, unless it is coupled with need-based allocation of resources and empowerment of these groups.


2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 87-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maciej Jewczak ◽  
Jadwiga Suchecka

Usage of the economic analysis in the study of the performance of health care system does not surprise anyone nowadays. Trends that are drawn over the years fluctuate from the technology assessment of health programs – in terms of efficiency, costs or utility for patients, through methods to establishing copayment for health services and the demand for medical services. Much of the interest is devoted to analysis of the shape of the health care system: the amount of contributions to the National Health Fund, the managing the system, both at the micro and macro level, or restructuring. Any method that allows to show dependencies, identify weaknesses/strengths of the health care system is appreciated by health policy makers. The aim of this article is an attempt of the use of models of input-output type in the analysis of the performance of the health care sector in Poland. The construction of input-output model is based on the observed data for the specified, variously defined area – it may concern: country, region, municipality, etc., hence with the appropriate designed database, it may be possible to examine the flow of health benefits – for example, expressed in zlotys. Part of the article is dedicated to theoretical aspects of the input-output models and the problems this usage can cause.


1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann L. Casebeer ◽  
Kathryn J. Hannah

A qualitative field study of health system reform in Alberta was undertaken to identify, describe, compare and contrast the processes of change management adopted and implemented as a result of legislated health policy shift. Chairs and chief executives of the new regional health authorities and provincial leaders managing the change processes within Alberta's health care system were interviewed. Components of change strategies important to the structure, process and impact of the health policy shift to a regionalized system of care were identified and analyzed. Stakeholders involved in managing change inside Alberta's health care system were able to consistently identify a range of issues important to beginning and sustaining health policy shift. These issues and insights did not come from the literature, but rather from experience. To test and share this experience further, it will be important to study more consciously the management of change in relation to expected outcomes. With so many natural experiments altering health care systems across Canada and beyond, a window of opportunity exists for researching both the quality and quantity of such change, comparing and sharing findings over time and, eventually, linking process to outcome.


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