Health Policies

Welcome to the Health Division website. Our work includes analysis of health policies and collection of health data. Click on the About item to know more on our Division activities.
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What's new

Facilitating Cross-National Comparisons of Indicators for Patient Safety: a new OECD Health Technical Paper

08-Apr-2008

The OECD has released a new OECD Health Technical Paper (#19). The paper was prepared to support the overall work of the Health Care Quality Indicators Project  in developing a set of indicators that can be used to raise questions for investigation concerning the quality of care across countries. It provides a manual to facilitate cross national comparisons of indicators for patient safety through the provision of detailed practical advice on calculating each indicator in a selected set of Patient Safety Indicators (PSI) utilising national hospital administrative databases.

The Prevention of Lifestyle-Related Chronic Diseases: an Economic Framework: a new OECD Health Working Paper

31-Mar-2008

The OECD has released a new OECD Health Working Paper from the Economics of Prevention project. The paper (Working Paper #32) provides an economic perspective on the prevention of chronic diseases, focusing in particular on diseases linked to lifestyle choices.

Developing a Health Care System Benefiting All

25-Mar-2008

Speech by Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General, delivered at the China Development Forum 2008 (Beijing, March 23, 2008)

Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies in the Slovak Republic

27-Feb-2008

The OECD has released a new OECD Health Working Paper from the Pharmaceutical Pricing Policies and Innovation project. The paper describes and assesses pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement policies in the Slovak Republic, in the context of the broader policy and market environment.

Improved Health System Performance Through Better Care Coordination: A new OECD Health Working Paper

17-Dec-2007

This report (Working Paper 30) attempts to assess whether--and to what degree--better care coordination can improve health system performance in terms of quality and cost-efficiency. See also the annex to this paper.

Health at a Glance - Edition 2007

22-Nov-2007

The 2007 edition of Health at a Glance has been released in November 2007. It provides the latest comparable data and trends on the performane of health systems in OECD countries.

Health care is improving in OECD countries but better management of chronic diseases is necessary - only half of diabetics get needed eye screening

13-Nov-2007

The quality of medical care, measured by the provision of recommended interventions or actual health outcomes, is improving in OECD countries. Health at a Glance 2007 shows that advances in diagnosis and treatment mean that, across OECD countries, only 10% of people hospitalized after a heart attack now die within 30 days of being admitted to hospital, down from 20% in the 1980s.

Fourth issue of Health Update

08-Nov-2007

OECD Deputy Secretary-General De Geus highlights the growing importance of health for OECD countries. The November 2007 issue of the newsletter on OECD health-related activities also includes news on health care quality indicators, health workforce migration, medicines for neglected diseases, and using the health sector to monitor aid effectiveness.

Internet update for OECD Health Data 2007 released

26-Oct-2007

The Internet update for OECD Health Data 2007 has been released. Go to the OECD Health Data Update page to download the file and access more than 3,500 data updates, along with a fully revised hypertext for Definitions, Sources and Methods.

Health Care Quality Indicators Project - 2006 data collection update report: A new OECD Health Working Paper

05-Oct-2007

The OECD has released an OECD Health Working Paper (No. 29) from the Health Care Quality Indicators Project. This report is an update to the OECD Health Working Paper No. 22, and reports on the results of a second round of data collection.

Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies in Sweden: A new OECD Health Working Paper

26-Jul-2007

The OECD has released a new OECD Health Working Paper from the Pharmaceutical Pricing Policies and Innovation project. The paper describes and assesses pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement policies in Sweden, in the context of the broader policy and market environment.

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