Evaluation of the use and impact of the European Community health indicators ECHI by Member States : executive summary

This Executive summary is based on the final report "Evaluation of the use and impact of the European Community Health Indicators (ECHI) by the Member States" undertaken on behalf of the European Commission (EC) - Directorate General for Health & Consumers (DG SANCO). The purpose of the Study is twofold. First of all is to assess the extent to which the ECHI indicators have been used in the countries participating to the ECHIM Joint Action (JA), either to monitor and evaluate health policies or to assess the responsiveness and efficiency of health systems, or in other steps of the policy-making process. In this sense, it involved an analysis of the limitations and possible reasons for non-use as well as of the driving forces behind their actual use. Secondly, the Study is to provide indications on how to reach a high level of consensus on the use of the ECHI indicators in the participating countries, in order to ensure the long-term sustainability of the mechanism. The geographical scope of the Study covers all the current EU 28 Member States (i.e. including Croatia), as well as Iceland and Norway.