Addressing perinatal health inequities in Dutch municipalities: Protocol for the Healthy Pregnancy 4 All-3 programme

BackgroundHealth inequities are already present at birth and affect individuals’ health and socioeconomic outcomes across the life course. Addressing these inequities requires a cross-sectoral approach, covering the first 1,000 days of life. We believe that - in the Dutch context - municipal governments can be the main responsible actor to drive such an approach, since they are primarily responsible for organising adequate public health. Therefore, we aim to identify and develop transformative change towards the implementation of perinatal health into municipal approaches and policies concerning health inequities.MethodsA transition analysis will be combined with action research in six Dutch municipalities. Interviews and interactive group sessions with professionals and organisations that are relevant for the institutional embedding of perinatal health into approaches and policies regarding health inequities, will be organised in each municipality. As a follow-up, a questionnaire will be administered among all participants one year after completion of the group sessions.DiscussionWe expect to gain insights into the role of municipalities in addressing perinatal health inequities, learn more about the interaction between different key stakeholders, and identify barriers and facilitators for a cross-sectoral approach to perinatal health. This knowledge will serve to inform the development of approaches to perinatal health inequities in areas with relatively poor perinatal health outcomes, both in the Netherlands and abroad.     

The shift from inpatient care to outpatient care in Switzerland since 2017: Policy processes and the role of evidence

The shift from inpatient care to the ambulatory sector is a central aspiration of European health systems. Despite demonstrated benefits, health reforms have struggled to realize their potential. In this context, we discuss recent hospital sector reforms in Switzerland and analyze the content, process, and role of evidence in the recent introduction of policies to substitute inpatient care with ambulatory care. The prevailing payment system incentivized hospitals to provide unnecessary and costly inpatient services, but federal reform on tariff structures was deemed politically unfeasible. Instead, driven by the pressure to contain costs, cantonal and federal health authorities began to deny reimbursement for selected inpatient procedures in 2017. These regulatory measures were effective in reducing inpatient admissions and health care costs. This case study illustrates that clear, simple messages about hospital sector reform can raise awareness of the need for change. However, the evidence used in the policy process was limited and not critically reviewed. Stakeholders used long-standing international comparisons of inpatient substitution potential to legitimize policies, but not to develop them. The analysis restates the importance of inter- and intranational comparative analyses and institutions such as health observatories and suggests aligning health system governance more proactively with international developments.     

National decision-making for the introduction of new vaccines: A systematic review, 2010–2020

BackgroundCompeting priorities make using a transparent and evidence-based approach important when deciding to recommend new vaccines. We conducted a literature review to document the processes and frameworks for national decision-making on new vaccine introductions and explored which key features have evolved since 2010.MethodsWe searched literature published on policymaking related to vaccine introduction from March 2010 to August 2020 in six databases. We screened articles for eligibility with the following exclusion criteria: non-human or hypothetical vaccines, the sole focus on economic evaluation or decision to adopt rather than policy decision-making. We employed nine broad categories of criteria from the 2012 review for categorization and abstracted data on the country, income level, vaccine, and other relevant criteria.ResultsOf the 3808 unique references screened, 116 met eligibility criteria and were classified as: a) framework of vaccine adoption decision-making (27), b) studies that analyse empirical data on or examples of vaccine adoption decision-making (45), c) theoretical and empirical articles that provide insights into the vaccine policymaking process (44 + 17 already included in the previous categories). Commonly reported criteria for decision-making were the burden of disease; vaccine efficacy/effectiveness, safety; impact on health and non-health outcomes; economic evaluation and cost-effectiveness of alternative interventions. Programmatic and acceptability aspects were not as often considered. Most (50; 82%) of the 61 articles describing the process of vaccine introduction policymaking highlighted the role of country, regional, or global evidence-informed recommendations and a robust national governance as enabling factors for vaccine adoption.ConclusionsThe literature on vaccine adoption decision-making has expanded since 2010. We found that policymakers and expert advisory committee members (e.g., National Immunization Technical Advisory Group [NITAG]) increasingly value the interventions based on economic evaluations. The results of this review could guide discussions on evidence-informed immunization decision-making among country, sub-regional, and regional stakeholders.     

我国贫困地区县域内健康扶贫工作进展与政策建议

通过健康扶贫政策梳理、定量分析卫生健康统计数据和典型案例分析,研究我国县域内健康扶贫工作的进展、成效及问题,提出后脱贫期县域内医疗卫生服务改革与发展的建议。整体上看,我国健康扶贫工作成效显著:医疗卫生机构"三个一"和医疗服务能力"三条线"目标基本实现;卫生技术人员配置基本达到"三个一"要求;贫困县床位和设备配置达到或接近全国平均水平;通过新建临床专科、开展新技术和新项目等,贫困县专科服务能力得到提升;此外,部分贫困地区积极探索县域内医疗卫生综合改革。今后,新脱贫地区面临的主要挑战是县域内卫生服务体系建设仍需加强,基层卫生人才队伍差距和财政投入与卫生改革协同不足三大主要问题。建议中央财政继续支持县域内卫生服务体系建设;以人才建设为抓手,提升县域内医疗服务能力;强化保障措施,推进县域内医疗卫生综合改革。     

我国"乡聘村用"政策典型地区实践经验与启示

目的:分析我国"乡聘村用"政策进展和典型地区实践经验,分析推进"乡聘村用"政策的问题与挑战,为推进乡村医生队伍建设提供政策建议。方法:利用我国卫生健康统计年鉴相关数据进行定量分析;收集我国典型地区政策、报告等资料,进行案例分析。结果:"乡聘村用"在我国具有一定的政策基础,在全国范围内已经具有一定实践规模。从人员资质、人事管理和养老保障及资金来源方式等角度看,在典型地区的实践对推进"乡聘村用"政策的挑战是增加财政支出、乡村医生队伍老龄化和县乡管理能力不足。结论与建议:典型地区经验表明"乡聘村用"政策是转变乡村医生身份、解决乡村医生养老等社会保障问题的有效途径。建议各地借鉴典型经验积极推进"乡聘村用"政策,加大地方财政支持力度;加强县级和乡镇卫生院管理能力;同时,稳步推进政策,避免各类乡村医生之间产生矛盾。     

基于政策工具的我国三医联动政策量化分析

目的:对我国发布的27份三医联动政策文件的政策工具进行分析,探究我国三医联动政策体系的着重点与缺失点,为健全我国三医联动政策体系提供参考。方法;以我国2014—2019年发布的27份三医联动政策文件为研究对象,以政策工具为视角对纳入分析的政策文件进行摘录和编码,采用内容分析法和定量分析法对各项政策工具进行统计分析,并确定其运用情况。结果:260个政策编号中,需求型,供给型和环境型政策工具分别占6.9%、24.6%和68.5%;医疗、医保和医药政策工具分别占54.2%、24.6%和21.2%。由此可以看出,我国三医联动改革对环境现状的依赖程度较大,需求与供给政策相对不足,而医疗则是三医联动改革的核心关键点。结论:应适当增加需求型和供给型政策工具,着重解决医疗方面的重难点问题,促使医疗、医保、医药三个利益主体达成合力,形成“三医既联又动”的协同发展机制。     

The impact of COVID-19 on routine pediatric vaccination delivery in Brazil

IntroductionChildhood vaccination rates have decreased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Brazilian immunization program, Programa Nacional de Imunização (PNI), is a model effort, achieving immunization rates comparable to high-income countries. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in pediatric vaccinations administered by the PNI, as a proxy of adherence to vaccinations during 2020.MethodsData on the number of vaccines administered to children under 10 years of age nationally and in each of Brazil’s five regions were extracted from Brazil’s federal health delivery database. Population adjusted monthly vaccination rates from 2015 through 2019 were determined, and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models were used to forecast expected vaccinated rates in 2020. We compared the forecasts to reported vaccine administrations to assess adequacy of pediatric vaccine delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic.ResultsFrom January 2015 to February 2020, the average rate of vaccine administration to children was 53.4 per 100,000. After February 2020, this rate decreased to 50.4, a 9.4% drop compared to 2019 and fell outside of forecasted ranges in December 2020. In Brazil's poorest region, the North, vaccine delivery fell outside of the forecasted ranges earlier in 2020 but subsequently rebounded, meeting expected targets by the end of 2020. However, in Brazil's wealthiest South and Southeast regions, initial vaccine delivery fell and remained well below forecasted rates through the end of 2020.ConclusionIn Brazil, despite a model national pediatric vaccination program with an over 95% national coverage, vaccination rates decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Coordinated governmental efforts have ameliorated some of the decrease, but more efforts are needed to ensure continued protection from preventable communicable diseases for children globally.     

Pilot study of 6 weeks of chemoradiotherapy with 5 FU and hydroxyurea in malignant gliomas

Summary In an attempt to improve the primary treatment of malignant gliomas we used a concomitant 6-week course of chemoradiotherapy with 5 fluorouracil (5 FU) and hydroyxurea (HU) in 24 adults with anaplastic astrocytoma (AA) (7 cases) or glioblastomas (GLB) (17 cases). This patient population was characterised by a poor prognostic profile; 50% of cases had biopsic or subtotal surgery and 70% had GLB. Patients received 2 Gy/day 18 MV photons with 300m² of 5 FU in continuous infusion and 500 mg x 4/day per os of HU, five days per week during 6 weeks. Treatment was poorly tolerated in terms of toxicity and implied heavy logistics (hospitalization, central venous access) worsening the quality of life which is already bad in malignant gliomas. Unfortunately we did not improve median survival which does not exceed 26 weeks with 7 long survivors (> 49 weeks). This pilot study does not offer any benefits over current standard approaches. Aggressive locoregional approaches such as this should perhaps be attempted in patients with a better profile.