Value
187 blogs about the topic
Posted on 29.10.2009
Waste and paying for tomorrow’s healthcare
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 […]
Posted on 14.10.2009
John Wilkinson at AdvaMed 2009: A view on the US health reforms
A chill wind is blowing through Washington D.C. this morning and it is not just the cold front from the North blowing away the warm Autumn sun of yesterday. Yesterday, the Obama health reforms took their first step on a long and perilous road through the legislature when the Senate Finance Committee passed the preliminary […]
Posted on 29.09.2009
The Netherlands top the table again!
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 […]
Posted on 18.08.2009
Facts and figures, not political rhetoric, as a basis for healthcare reform
Returning to the daily routine after a long, and hot, summer break is always characterised by mixed feelings. Part wishes the languorous morning routines to carry on whilst other forces bring a refreshed mind optimistic about the challenges ahead. This morning’s bright and early start in Brussels was illuminated by two articles in the Financial […]
Posted on 16.07.2009
Are we the problem or the solution?
Browsing the news pages of the web I came across an article in a journal that I am not familiar with from the USA, the grandly titled U.S. News & World Report. The report headed off on a familiar and now even more fashionable track of squarely identifying our industry as the villains of the […]
Posted on 19.06.2009
Europe needs a highly competitive single market if it is to sustain our quality of life
Warm summer sunshine bathed the triumphal arch of the Parc du Cinquantenaire as colleague John Brennan and I walked down the tree-lined Avenue de Tervuren to attend sister organisation COCIR’s 50th birthday party. Highlight of a wonderfully sociable evening amongst a veritable “who’s who” of the medical technology industry in Brussels was an impassioned speech […]
Posted on 16.06.2009
Treating Osteoarthritis: will new research lead to a “run” of success?
On Thursday 11 June, I attended, as part of the EULAR conference in Copenhagen – Europe’s largest conference on Rheumatology – the session “Structure modification in osteoarthritis: Time to update the guidelines”. What became really apparent was that rheumatologists from Europe and North-America are seriously concerned about the exponentially increasing prevalence and incidence of osteoarthritis […]
Posted on 29.05.2009
Is the German healthcare system setting the right incentives to provide the best patient care?
An exclusive roundtable hosted by Johnson & Johnson during this year’s Hauptstadtkongress debated the question whether the current healthcare system in Germany should compromise between the need to standardize treatments due to scarce resources and increasingly informed patients demanding the best treatment possible. Although panelists agreed that Germany may be leading in terms of standards […]
Posted on 28.05.2009
From the Haupstadtkongress – Patient safety, what can be done on a European level?
Listening to a distinguished panel of experts chaired by Bernard Merkel of DG Sanco I get the impression that things are moving to raise the level of patient safety. I was interested to learn that DG Sanco has commissioned a study to rate Member States in their efforts to combat patient safety. This “black list” […]