Issues and Opportunities in Primary Health Care for Children in Europe


Book Description

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and is freely available to read online. This book presents the scientific findings of a three-year project across 30 EU and EEA countries assessing primary care for children throughout the life-course, drawing from 20 academic partners' analysis of evidence produced by agents in each of the countries.




Building Primary Care in a Changing Europe


Book Description

For many citizens primary health care is the first point of contact with their health care system, where most of their health needs are satisfied but also acting as the gate to the rest of the system. In that respect primary care plays a crucial role in how patients value health systems as responsive to their needs and expectations. This volume analyses the way how primary are is organized and delivered across European countries, looking at governance, financing and workforce aspects and the breadth of the service profiles. It describes wide national variations in terms of accessibility, continuity and coordination. Relating these differences to health system outcomes the authors suggest some priority areas for reducing the gap between the ideal and current realities.




Children’s Rights in Health Care


Book Description

While coordinating the University of Groningen’s Honours College Winterschool/Atelier entitled Children's Rights in Health Care, the need to publish the contributions to this program was generally expressed and confirmed by its participants. The Winterschool/Atelier, successfully organized in recent years, has dealt with many issues concerning the legal position of minor persons – born and unborn – in the context of health care, especially pediatric care. These issues involve matters concerning pediatric treatment, preventive care and predictive medicine, medical research involving children, incompetence and child autonomy, a child’s psychological development, parental responsibility and representation, protective judicial measures, child migration issues, children’s health rights enforcement as well as children’s health interest monitoring and promotion. During the program, leading experts in the fields of law, ethics, medicine, biology, psychology and institutions such as the Dutch Child & Hospital Foundation, the Child Protection Board, Save the Children, and UNICEF shared their views on normative standards, practical experiences, significant developments, challenging ideas, silent dreams and inevitable realities. As a result, the Children's Rights in Health Care program provided opportunities for a profound dialogue between Honours College students and lecturing scholars on a wide range of topics involving children’s health care interests. This volume contains several analyses of health rights issues related to children. The various chapters provide an overview of this captivating area and may be of special interest to lawyers, health care professionals, ethicists, psychologists, judicial institutions, policy makers, interest groups, students and all others who are concerned with the children’s rights perspective on health care.




Organization and Financing of Public Health Services in Europe


Book Description

What are public health services? Countries across Europe understand what they are or what they should include differently. This study describes the experiences of nine countries detailing the ways they have opted to organize and finance public health services and train and employ their public health workforce. It covers England France Germany Italy the Netherlands Slovenia Sweden Poland and the Republic of Moldova and aims to give insights into current practice that will support decision-makers in their efforts to strengthen public health capacities and services. Each country chapter captures the historical background of public health services and the context in which they operate; sets out the main organizational structures; assesses the sources of public health financing and how it is allocated; explains the training and employment of the public health workforce; and analyses existing frameworks for quality and performance assessment. The study reveals a wide range of experience and variation across Europe and clearly illustrates two fundamentally different approaches to public health services: integration with curative health services (as in Slovenia or Sweden) or organization and provision through a separate parallel structure (Republic of Moldova). The case studies explore the context that explain this divergence and its implications. This study is the result of close collaboration between the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and the WHO Regional Office for Europe Division of Health Systems and Public Health. It accompanies two other Observatory publications Organization and financing of public health services in Europe and The role of public health organizations in addressing public health problems in Europe: the case of obesity alcohol and antimicrobial resistance (both forthcoming).




Health Informatics Vision: From Data via Information to Knowledge


Book Description

The latest developments in data, informatics and technology continue to enable health professionals and informaticians to improve healthcare for the benefit of patients everywhere. This book presents full papers from ICIMTH 2019, the 17th International Conference on Informatics, Management and Technology in Healthcare, held in Athens, Greece from 5 to 7 July 2019. Of the 150 submissions received, 95 were selected for presentation at the conference following review and are included here. The conference focused on increasing and improving knowledge of healthcare applications spanning the entire spectrum from clinical and health informatics to public health informatics as applied in the healthcare domain. The field of biomedical and health informatics is examined in a very broad framework, presenting the research and application outcomes of informatics from cell to population and exploring a number of technologies such as imaging, sensors, and biomedical equipment, together with management and organizational aspects including legal and social issues. Setting research priorities in health informatics is also addressed. Providing an overview of the latest developments in health informatics, the book will be of interest to all those working in the field.




European Integration


Book Description

The monographs ‘European Integration: Conditions, Essence and Consequences’ and its follow-up ‘The Future of the European Union’ were compiled in the course of the project ‘Quo vadis Unio? a racja stanu Polski’ under the DIALOG research programme between 2019 and 2023. They are the result of contributions by Europeanists, political scientists, lawyers, economists, cultural scholars and historians who study the issues of European integration. The content presented in both publications reflects the research outcomes and views of the individual authors. The first monograph was designed as an attempt to summarise the integration process within the European Union to date and its legal and institutional dimension. The monograph consists of four parts: ‘The State of European Integration’, ‘Selected Problems of European Integration’, ‘EU and National Concepts of Reforms of the European Union’ and ‘Theoretical Problems of Research on European Integration’. We hope that the issues discussed in the monograph will attract the interest of potential readers, especially academics and students involved in European studies, political science, economics, sociology, history, law and cultural studies. Insight into these issues may also be useful to government officials and NGO activists, as well as to a wide audience interested in European issues.




Health at a Glance: Europe 2018 State of Health in the EU Cycle


Book Description

Health at a Glance: Europe 2018 presents comparative analyses of the health status of EU citizens and the performance of the health systems of the 28 EU Member States, 5 candidate countries and 3 EFTA countries.




Health at a Glance: Europe 2020 State of Health in the EU Cycle


Book Description

The 2020 edition of Health at a Glance: Europe focuses on the impact of the COVID‐19 crisis. Chapter 1 provides an initial assessment of the resilience of European health systems to the COVID-19 pandemic and their ability to contain and respond to the worst pandemic in the past century.




Assuring the Quality of Health Care in the European Union


Book Description

People have always travelled within Europe for work and leisure, although never before with the current intensity. Now, however, they are travelling for many other reasons, including the quest for key services such as health care. Whatever the reason for travelling, one question they ask is "If I fall ill, will the health care I receive be of a high standard?" This book examines, for the first time, the systems that have been put in place in all of the European Union's 27 Member States. The picture it paints is mixed. Some have well developed systems, setting standards based on the best available evidence, monitoring the care provided, and taking action where it falls short. Others need to overcome significant obstacles.




European Report on Child Injury Prevention


Book Description

Injuries are a leading cause of death and disability in children. This report presents evidence on how they can be prevented and calls for greater commitment and action from policy-makers and practitioners to decrease the burden. Every year, unintentional injuries kill nearly 42,000 children and young people under the age of 20 in the WHO European Region. Injuries are the leading cause of death among those aged 5-19 years, and 5 out of 6 of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. Irrespective of country income, the burden falls disproportionately on children from the most disadvantaged groups. The leading types of unintentional injuries are road traffic injuries, drowning, poisoning, burns and falls. All injury types have similar main causes and socioeconomic and environmental determinants. Children are particularly vulnerable to injuries and need special consideration to safeguard their rights to health and safe environments, free from injury. This report, companion to the World Report on Child Injury Prevention, presents the evidence on both the great potential for injury prevention and the effectiveness and value for money of measures already in use in European countries with low injury mortality. It shows why health systems and particularly programs for child health throughout the WHO European Region should give priority to preventing and controlling child injury.