BDVZ071b Health Care and Policy

Faculty of Medicine
Autumn 2008
Extent and Intensity
15/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
prof. MUDr. Jan Holčík, DrSc. (lecturer)
prof. RNDr. Anna Gerylovová, CSc. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. MUDr. Jan Holčík, DrSc.
Department of Social Medicine and Health Care Administration – Theoretical Departments – Faculty of Medicine
Prerequisites (in Czech)
BDSL051 Community Medicine
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The course in Health Care and Policy introduces the students to the analysis of health care systems, managerial and policy issues and techniques for decision-making in health care. The subjects covered include health services research, health policy, health economics, and law.
Syllabus
  • 1. Introduction to health care: What is meant by "health care"? Lay care: ranges and extent of activities, lay carers, attitudes of formal carers. Inputs to formal health care: staff, facilities, finance. Variations in inputs. Problems of definition. Historical framework for public health and health policy. Cultural conceptions and health beliefs, health as a value.
  • 2. Diseases and medical knowledge: What is meant by "disease"? Difference between objective and subjective explanations of disease. What is meant by "a disease"? How do disease categories arise? Why do such categories change over time? History of medicine: bedside, hospital and laboratory medicine. Clinical approaches to the study of health and disease: case study and case series.
  • 3. Health and public policy: What is health policy? Theoretical approaches to policy making. Political system and public participation. Exogenous factors affecting policy. How far does research influence policy? Implementation of public health policy. United Nations health related organisations. European Health for All strategy. Reforms of health systems. Issues in the Czech Public Health Medicine.
  • 4. The role of epidemiology in health policy: The role of evaluation in therapeutic and prophylactic decision making. Critical assessment and interpretation of scientific data. Evidence based medicine. Meta-analysis. The advantages and limitations of epidemiology in assessing health needs, determining priorities, establishing and evaluating interventions. The value of epidemiological evidence in health policy decision-making. Health information provision for decision making. Information systems in public health.
  • 5. Population and individual strategies in prevention: Primary, secondary and tertiary prevention in the context of the natural history of the disease. Epidemiological uncertainties and their consequences for policy. Tension between strategies for populations and high risk groups for preventive interventions. The advantages and disadvantages of primary care as a setting for health promotion. Behavioural aspects of health promotion interventions at both the individual and community level. Is prevention better than cure?
  • 6. Health need, demand and use: Conceptual model of inputs and processes: felt need, demand, normative need, met need, unmet need, overmet need, illness behaviour, professional judgement and rationing. Clinical iceberg. Measures of utilisation of health care: service-based, population-based. Need and use: effect of age and social class, use/need ratios, inverse care law. Use as a measure of met and unmet need.
  • 7. Organisation of health systéme: Patterns in the organisation of health services. Health systems in industrialised countries. Why compare health systems? Frameworks for comparison. Primary health care.
  • 8. Financing of health care: Public sources of finance. Private sources of finance. Health insurance. Problems of data collection, problems of coordination. Expenditure per capita and as proportion of GDP: problems of definition of expenditure, problems of international comparisons, effect of adjustment on social sector spending. Technology assessment. What financial strategies and methods are available to improve the management of health services?
  • 9. Evaluation of health services: Outcome measures. Efficacy, efficiency, effectiveness. Cost-effectiveness analysis. Cost-utility analysis. Cost-benefit analysis. Humanity of care. Defining equity. Measuring equity. Setting priorities for health services: why set priorities for health services?, stages of priority setting, how to involve the public, consensus development methods.
  • 10. Health services management: Current state of health services. Problems in health services management: lack of knowledge about outcome, lack of use of knowledge about outcome, powerful professions, organisational complexity, environmental changes. Outcome research. Quality assurance: methods for changing behaviour or practice, education, feedback of information, incentives, administrative processes, regulation. Organisational and financial management, modelling.
Literature
  • ŽÁČEK, A. and J. HOLČÍK. Sociální lékařství II, Úvod do veřejného zdravotnictví. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 1992, 130 pp. ISBN 80-210-0375-8. info
Assessment methods
oral exam
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course can also be completed outside the examination period.
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: in blocks.
Information on the extent and intensity of the course: celkem 15 hodin.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2000, Autumn 2001, Autumn 2002, Autumn 2003, Autumn 2004, Autumn 2005, Autumn 2006, Autumn 2007.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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