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The blogosphere has been driven into a foment over the last week or so by a paper by Groeneveld et al entitled ‘Increasing Use of Cardiovascular Devices and Rising Health Costs’. Its conclusions are interesting but, I suggest, not conclusive of anything which should prompt policy makers to ask further questions. Discounted for inflation the […]

Patient safety and public perception: transparency, transparency, transparency…In scanning the disparate output of the EU machine I came across a thought provoking survey of EU citizens on the subject of patient safety. Perception surveys are scientifically questionable as  they deal in the currency of (often poorly informed) individual’s views. Politically and from a policy perspective […]

Talking about ethics and compliance as industry understands it within the frame of a course of Health Systems Management given at the Public Health School of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) presented itself as a challenge. On the one hand, Eucomed is putting a lot of efforts into promoting a culture of integrity and […]

The prominence of World Kidney Day (11th March) brings into sharp focus the changing epidemiology of our times and the impact of modern life styles of the developed world on the demands placed on healthcare systems. The surge in incidence of diabetes coupled with extending life expectancy are producing a parallel rise in the incidence […]

It is perhaps surprising how quickly coronary angioplasty has become just another everyday procedure. As someone who has seen open-heart surgery live and witnessed the trauma and hospital resource intensity of such procedures, the placing of a stent as an alternative is almost unimaginably better for both patient and the health sytem as a whole. […]

An ageing frequent traveller (this time sat on a plane taking me from frigid Brussels to what I hope will be altogether better conditions in Southern Spain) I am often exercised by what would await me if I were to get sick on my travels. Like most citizens of the EU-15, I would probably seek […]

Yesterday’s report by Thomson Reuters on the real causes of excessive costs in the US healthcare system make interesting reading. Centre stage is over-treatment generated by a litigious culture which encourages patients to sue and, from that, doctors to perform tests and procedures, not because in their clinical judgement the patient needs them but because […]

The latest results of the Euro Health Consumer Index (www.healthpowerhouse.com) further confirm the superiority of Bismarckian social philosophy over the Beveridge approach, at least as far as the patient is concerned. Bismarck countries, characterised by compulsory third party insurance systems, feature as the most consumer friendly health systems from the perspective of the patient and […]

Watching TV the other night I came across an excellent set of ‘reportages’ into the health sector.