Historic underinvestment, coupled with a growing and ageing population, has led to capacity constraints in public acute hospitals in Ireland. This is evidenced by ageing infrastructure, large waiting lists and long waiting times for elective treatment, as well as pressure on unscheduled care...

The literature on policy-making in public health academia portrays the interests of many industries as being implacably opposed to the public interest. Suspicion of large, transnational corporations has evolved into disapproval of a wide range of 'commercial entities' who are depicted as the...

At a time of global crisis and competing priorities, investing in health is among the most impactful and cost-effective decisions governments and stakeholders can make. Beyond being a fundamental right, health is a catalyst for growth, stability and resilience – particularly in uncertain...

We utilize region-day variation in actual vs. forecasted weather conditions (i.e. forecasting errors) to comprehensively investigate the effects of the first heat-health warning system in Japan. We find that heat alerts led to a 17% increase in heat stroke counts. An analysis of mechanisms...

Past trauma resulting from personal life shocks, especially during periods of particular volatility such as regime transition (or regime change), can give rise to significant long-lasting effects on people's health and well-being. We study this question by drawing on longitudinal and...

Innovation is considered essential to the quality and sustainability of healthcare systems. However, the path from innovative idea to adopted reality is complex and fraught with barriers. The way in which healthcare innovations are financed is often mentioned as a major stumbling block, but a...

The spatial accessibility of medical resources as a foundation for urban responses to public health crises, directly affects public health and social equity, and has become a key consideration in the post-pandemic era. Previous research has focused more on the spatial attributes of medical...

Recently, public and private providers within two-tier healthcare markets have engaged in a fierce competition for patients, which is significantly influenced by patients' multifaceted sensitivities to delays and payments, particularly when patients' potential balking is considered. However,...

Background The ORIENT-15 double-blind randomized controlled trial demonstrated that the addition of sintilimab to chemotherapy for locally advanced or metastatic oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) resulted in better clinical outcomes. In this analysis, we sought to evaluate the...

Patient moral hazard is a significant issue in healthcare system reform and a prominent factor affecting the efficiency of healthcare services in China. Based on the consolidation of urban and rural resident health insurance, this paper employs a staggered DID model to analyze the impact of...

Background During the post-pandemic era, there has been growing anxiety regarding health security, especially among the middle class worldwide. The public's confidence in the healthcare system encompasses their expectations and perceptions of the healthcare system's ability to meet their needs...

Background Productivity in the healthcare sector has evolved as an appealing research topic in the last few years. Despite the growing interest, the extant scientific literature mostly concentrates on methodologies rather than theoretical and practical insights. Although diverse methodologies...

Background The diagnosis-intervention packet (DIP) payment reform, utilizing big data for patient classification and payment standardization, was initially developed and piloted in China. Guangzhou, the pilot mega-city, rolled out DIP payment reform in 2018 to regulate medical expenditures. We...

Background Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is a central component of the Sustainable Development Goals, and integrated healthcare is recognized as a key pathway to achieving UHC. China's healthcare reform, aimed at real- izing the "Healthy China 2035" goal, faces challenges in ensuring the...

The Colombian Ministry of Health's decision to increase the health insurance premium (Capitation Payment Unit) by 5.36% for 2025, close to the inflation rate, has sparked controversy. This adjustment disregards factors that contribute to rising healthcare costs, leading to concerns over the...

One of the most important ways to boost the health system's performance and lower the rising cost of healthcare is to increase its efficiency. The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of the MOH in providing public health services and to gauge the progress of health plans in...

This study employs a cluster randomized controlled trial and administrative health center data to investigate the effects of authorizing community health workers to deliver a new generation of contraceptive injections directly to women during routine home visits following comprehensive training....

This report builds on a joint WHO-World Bank initiative on budget execution challenges (described in more detail in Appendix 1). Following the introduction, section 2 provides an overview of core concepts from both a public financial management perspective and a health financing perspective and...

The Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) is a capital investment grant administered by the Department of Health (DOH), designed to help local government units (LGUs) augment their health infrastructure, such as primary healthcare facilities, hospitals, and equipment. Over the past...

This article aims to develop the theoretical overlapping generation models with the unstable healthcare system due to the problem of missing trading markets between young and old generations. The main healthcare system in Thailand is Universal Coverage (UC) which covers around 48 million Thai...

This paper studies the impact of austerity measures implemented by the UK government after 2010 on life expectancy and mortality. We combine administrative data sources to create a panel dataset spanning from 2002 to 2019. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we estimate the effect of...

This study examines the impact of China's "Zero-COVID" policies on stock returns in the healthcare sector from January 2020 to December 2022. Using panel regression analysis, we find that increases in the Stringency Index increased healthcare stock returns. In contrast, vaccination rates are...

This report comprises three papers. In the first paper, we present a comprehensive assessment of the Human Resources for Health (HRH) remuneration system in the Philippines. We examine the current stock of HRH, their economic contribution, and the governance and financing mechanisms that support...

The guide provides an overview of how patient pathway studies can be designed and implemented to meet this goal. The studies featured in the guide offer a wealth of insights and lessons from research carried out in different health systems. By examining the design options of different study...

This study builds on the analysis on fiscal space for health in Uganda that was conducted by the World Bank in 2010. The previous study by Okwero et al. (2010) showed that there was low and inefficient health spending, limited scope for domestic revenue mobilization, high dependence on external...

Depression is a central marker in mental health issues due to its widespread prevalence, significant disability burden, and extensive social and economic impacts. The COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing conflicts, natural disasters, and the climate crisis have exacerbated mental health challenges across...

Finding effective treatment for patients with rare diseases can be very difficult. Since the EU orphan regulations entered into force in 2000, it has played a central role in facilitating the development and authorisation of medicines for rare diseases.

In 2024, EMA recommended 114 medicines for marketing authorisation. Of these, 46 had a new active substance which had never been authorised in the European Union (EU) before. Among these are a number of medicines that stand out due to their contribution to address public health needs or the...

In 2024, EMA recommended 114 medicines for marketing authorisation. Of these, 46 had a new active substance which had never been authorised in the European Union (EU) before. Among these are a number of medicines that stand out due to their contribution to address public health needs or the...

In the last quarter of 2020, the European medicines agencies network - comprising national competent authorities (NCAs) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) - published its five-year strategy covering the period from 2021 to 2025. The strategy (EMANS 2025) has now undergone an update to cover...

In the last quarter of 2020, the European medicines agencies network - comprising national competent authorities (NCAs) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) - published its five-year strategy covering the period from 2021 to 2025. The strategy (EMANS 2025) has now undergone an update to cover...

The report analyses trends, opportunities, challenges and barriers affecting digital health, and specifically, the innovation, deployment and use of wearable medical devices in the EU. The use of digital health solutions along the patient pathway could drive the integration of clinical services...

The EUAA provides access to Medical Country of Origin Information (MedCOI). This information supports the national migration and asylum authorities in Europe to reach accurate decisions in international protection and other migration procedures, while also ensuring convergence in the assessment...

In 2024, ECDC conducted a survey on public health workforce capacity in the field of prevention and control of infectious diseases in the EU/EEA. This was in response to requests from several European Member States to help assess existing workforce capacity and identify gaps and additional...