Thursday 20 October 2011

Figure of the day (2)

In 2008 the 5% of the population with the highest health care expenses accounted for 47.5% of total health care spending.

On the other hand, the 50% of the population with the lowest expenses only accounted for 3.1% of total health care spending.

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation
http://facts.kff.org/chart.aspx?ch=1344

Preventing NCD for US $1.20 per person per year

The WHO just published a report investigating low-cost interventions to prevent non communicable diseases and/or lessen the economic impact of NCDs. I find it interesting and encouraging that the recommendation span both individual intervention such as screening but also large-scale population-based interventions (e.g. action against tobacco use or campaigns for better nutrition).


Tuesday 11 October 2011

Expert Comment - Part 2

On September 16 I blogged about an expert comment by Dr Sudeep Chand of Chatham House about the UN meeting on non-communicable diseases. In a follow-up he assesses the outcomes of the meeting.

Unfortunately, it seems a chance was missed to address the global challenge of health in a global, coordinated way: "There is little in the declaration that is specific on international cooperation or coordination. [...] Health system development, the regulation of industry, and key interventions across sectors such as education, environment, agriculture, and transport remain areas for intervention at the national level."

Sunday 9 October 2011

Competition in health care

Interesting article in the Guardian about what competition means in health care:

"Competition is the supreme example of waste in health services. Private health and health insurance systems generate enormous transaction costs."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/09/nhs-nightmare-choice-competition

Wednesday 5 October 2011

The human side

I just found this blog entry about how google's automatic archiving of chats unintentionally created a history of the relationship between a women and her terminally ill boyfriend - a powerful reminder what health services are ultimately about: people.

Submitted

I am done - last Friday I handed in my PhD thesis. As you can see from the wordle, it focused on design, services, processes and knowledge :)
I will stay in Cambridge for a bit longer to write publications (to tell the world what I found out about design, services, processes and knowledge) and hopefully implement some of my findings in the Cambridge and Peterborough Foundation Trust.