Observatory Venice Summer School 2012

Performance Assessment for Health System Improvement: Uses and Abuses

(San Servolo, Venice, 22–28 July 2012)

Background

Health systems are coming under unprecedented pressures to constrain the relentless rise in health services expenditure while simultaneously improving health outcomes, responsiveness, and financial protection. Reconciling these conflicting performance pressures is a major preoccupation for many policy makers. Their task is made more challenging by the demands for transparency and accountability and the increasing availability of comparative data, the interpretation of which is rarely straightforward.

Objectives

The Summer School will focus on how to:

  1. measure performance (within countries and in comparison with others)
  2. assess the uses and abuses of performance assessment
  3. draw practical policy lessons
  4. integrate performance assessment within health systems governance

This will include reviewing innovative approaches and identifying areas and strategies to improve performance; including financial, regulatory, managerial and information mechanisms.

Approach

The six day course combines a core of formal teaching (divided into three modules) with a highly participative approach involving participant presentations, round tables, panel discussions and group work. It draws on the latest evidence; and a multidisciplinary team of experts from key organizations in the field including WHO, OECD and the EC.

The experiences of participants in practice will be central, with participants sharing their perspectives and developing a concrete case study that cuts across themes. They will also be able to engage in political dialogue with senior policy makers in the region and be part of the Summer School tradition which fosters evidence-based policy-making and encourages the European health policy debate by raising key issues, sharing learning and building lasting networks.


MODULE 1: The concept of performance assessment


  • Why performance assessment? – policy needs and expectations
  • Health systems performance assessment – the concept and its challenges
  • Dimensions / domains for assessing performance – population health, health service outcomes, equity, patient experience, financial protection and efficiency

MODULE 2: Assessing and analysing performance – within and across countries


  • Measuring and reporting performance – data, indicators and analysis
  • Implementing performance assessment – key areas, including financial protection and sustainability; access to health care; equity and continuity in ambulatory care; efficiency and quality of hospital care; integrated care and public health
  • Comparing performance within and across countries – uses and abuses
  • Drawing policy lessons to improve performance – within and across sectors

MODULE 3: Performance improvement – making it happen


  • Integrating performance assessment and analysis into governance structures and strategies
  • Benchmarking and public reporting, target and priority setting
  • Regulatory and financial incentives – including “pay-for-performance”
  • Institutional mechanisms to link performance to health service management

Accreditation

Summer School is accredited by the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education and participation counts towards ongoing professional development in all EU Member States.

Organization

Summer School is organized by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and the Veneto Region of Italy, one of its Partners

Applicants/participants

Summer School is primarily aimed at senior to mid-level policy-makers, with some junior professionals. All participants should be working in a decision-making or advisory institution (government, nongovernmental, health institute, insurance board or association, regulator, hospital federation or other professional body) that focuses on policy and management at a regional, national or European level. This year’s School specifically targets National and regional health policy-makers who wish to increase their understanding of health system performance and its implications for policy. Professionals working in the health sector whose responsibilities address performance assessment and improving health system performance at both a policy and implementation level.

Applications are welcome from all 53 WHO European Region Member States and the programme will be tailored, so far as is possible, to the mix of participants. If places allow, participants from outside the region will be considered.

Potential participants are requested to apply by completing a form which can be downloaded at http://www.observatorysummerschool.org and submitting it along with their CV by email to summerschool2012@obs.euro.who.int. Early applications are encouraged as places are limited. Successful applicants will be notified by 15 June 2012 at the latest.

The cost of € 1,950 covers teaching materials, social programme, accommodation and meals.

Faculty

The Summer School will involve a group of expert lecturers and facilitators from international organizations and centres of expertise and will be led by:

  • Reinhard Busse (European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and Berlin University of Technology) as Director;
  • Peter Smith (Imperial College, London) as Co-Director.

Preparation

The course involves only limited preparation all materials will be available through the web site of the Summer School.

Other information

The Summer School involves:

  • an active social programme to facilitate networking and provide opportunities to enjoy the magnificent setting of Venice;
  • a visit to the Veneto Region office in Venice.

About the organizers

The European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies supports and promotes evidence-based health policy-making through the comprehensive and rigorous analysis of the dynamics of health care systems in Europe and beyond. It is a partnership that includes national governments and other authorities (Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden, the Veneto Region, the French Union of Health Insurance Funds), international organizations (the WHO Regional Office for Europe, European Commission, European Investment Bank and World Bank) and academia (London School of Economics and Political Science, and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine).

The Veneto Region seeks to ensure that empirical evidence and analysis reaches national and regional stakeholders and policy-makers. It is involved in comparing health care systems across EU Member States. The Veneto Region is active in the area of cross-border health care and plays a leading role in the EU in research and policy development. It is also actively involved in a number of networks, including EUREGHA, ERRIN, EuroHealthnet, WHO RHN, AER, HealthClusterNet, ESN, ENSA and ELISAN. The Veneto Region, which has been a partner of the European Observatory since 2004, is hosting the Summer School because it is committed to providing a European platform for political debate on health matters, linking regional authorities to the EU debate.

For more information please contact: summerschool2012@obs.euro.who.int

Summer School web site