Medical writing

Medical writer is a job that can sometimes be very poorly paid. The blog below displays many cases in support of this statement.

http://ridiculads.blogspot.ca/2012/07/ridiculad-writer-needed-for-10-articles.html?m=1

Health care costs

Interesting thoughts of a retired Doctor:

http://mdredux.blogspot.fr/2013/01/costs-to-health-care-system-what-does.html?m=1

Who is the caregiver?

English: Healthy Life Years and Life Expectancy with Disability in the 25 EU Member States, 2006, both sexes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

The end of life is not the same for women and men. It is common to think that women are more healthy, live longer and thereof can support their partner. But in fact, at birth, the difference for one individual between his Life Expectancy (acronym LE) and his Healthy Adjusted Life Expectancy (acronym HALE) is larger in average for women than it is for Men. So there is some chances that the care giver could not be the one we thought of at the first sight.
The link below is the address for a very sensitive article posted by France Woolley.

 

http://worthwhile.typepad.com/worthwhile_canadian_initi/2012/12/who-is-the-caregiver.html#more

 

Related articles

 

• What About All Those Exhausted Men? (aarp.org)
• Who is the caregiver? (worthwhile.typepad.com)
• This Month, Be THANKFUL for Caregivers! (pattidudek.typepad.com)

 

Hospital Spending Intensity and Patient Outcomes

English: Data Source http://www.irdes.fr/EcoSante/DownLoad/OECDHealthData_FrequentlyRequestedData.xls (OECD Health Data 2009). Health care cost rise based on total expenditure on health as % of GDP. Countries are USA, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Canada. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An amazing study implemented by Canadian health services researchers and published in the Journal of American Medical Association, suggests that depending which side of the border between Canada and the USA you live on, the consumption of the same expensive acute health cares results in different outcomes in term of patient’s health and quality of care. In other words, it is not so a matter of “how much” but rather a matter of “how” when it comes to question the legitimacy of a nation’s health care expenditures. The authors schedule to extend the field of their study to European countries and also to the long-term cares of chronic conditions.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?sns=fb&v=EOm2Ommqq5c&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DEOm2Ommqq5c%26sns%3Dfb&gl=FR

Related articles

• Viewpoints: Who will fill the health care provider gap? (sacbee.com)
• Big Changes Are Coming For The US Healthcare System (businessinsider.com)
• Hospitals face increased scrutiny for charging facility fees (bangordailynews.com)

7 tips on how to get the most from your patient experience survey

Reblogged from DHP Research thepatientoutcomesblog:

Designing a patient survey questionnaire whether it’s to measure patient satisfaction or patient experience is more than simply writing some questions expecting patients to understand them and give reliable and valid answers. Designing a patient satisfaction or experience questionnaire involves  initiating  a relationship with respondents  that stimulates their interest and encourages them to provide the best answers possible.

• UNDERSTAND THE BIG PICTURE  

Read more… 437 more words

Designing a questionnaire is a step in health services research whose importance is too often under estimated and that is implemented more rapidly than it would deserve. The importance of how the questions are featured by the searcher is highlighted in the blog written by Keith Meadows, a Health Psychologist.

Related articles

• Meetings with Meaning (worthwhile.typepad.com)

 

Changing Mindsets -Strategy on health Policy and Systems research

The report referenced below with its internet link reflects the strong incentives given by the WHO to enhance the articulation between research in health systems and research in health policy in one hand and the decision making at the political level in the other hand in the realm of health care and health coverage. Nine countries are studied, including China, Thailand and Nepal for the Asian part of the World.

http://www.who.int/alliance-hpsr/alliancehpsr_changingmindsets_strategyhpsr.pdf

Religion and the Open Society Symposium

What went first in the history of humanity: the religion or the politics? Like the chicken and egg question, nobody knows. And today also it is obvious that the entanglement of those two domains which highly influence the future and the past of humankind is worth to be discussed by some high level intellectuals (professors and writers) in the three conferences referenced below with their Internet link.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=relmfu&v=h4hryykQZBk

http://m.youtube.com/?reload=7&rdm=06rr#/watch?feature=relmfu&v=159iiam2pW8

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?feature=relmfu&v=PI4PEQgbQ1M

http://www.cfr.org/projects/world/religion-and-open-society-symposium/pr1361

Social spending after the crisis

English: World GDP growth rate and GDP growth rate of total OECD countries. Data source: World Bank Group and OECD. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Social spending after the crisis

This report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ranks the countries with regard to their net social expenditure in proportion of their Gross Domestic Product. When taking into account the taxes applied to social benefits and the social expenditures borne by the private sector, France and the USA rank in the first places (30 % of their GDP) while Korea and Mexico are the two countries that spend the less in social expenditure be it in cash or in kind (around 10 % of their GDP). Overall the average is 20 to 25 % of the GDP. The social expenditures includes cash benefits like pensions or unemployment benefits (12.6% of GDP in average) as well as the financing of social and health services (9.0% of GDP in average).

Hope or Despair? The Future of Low-Paid Work in Europe and the US

A survey compared the incidence of low paid jobs in Europe and the US. The USA, the UK and Germany appears to be the champions. Surprisingly the survey found that the rate of unemployment and the incidence of low paid workers varied in an opposite way across the countries included in the study. The occupational sectors struck by  low wages are principally hospitals, hotels, food processing and call centers.

Related articles

• Why we are striking against austerity in Europe | The panel (guardian.co.uk)
• Low-wage jobs take toll on families (miamiherald.com)
• Where next for the living wage? (newstatesman.com)
• Economy: Wage Growth Slows Worldwide (ionglobaltrends.com)
• Low-Wage Jobs Don’t Just Harm Workers – They Harm Their Children (thinkprogress.org)

Health Policy Analysis Institutes: India, Thailand, and Vietnam Case Studies

Each country, especially the emerging ones, have to back their health policy on the evidence brought by the research focused on health systems in order to implement  sound, balanced health services for their citizens. Thailand Vietnam and India present in the video below their national institutes devoted to health systems research.

Related articles

• Boston doctors launch new journal focused on changes in the health care system (boston.com)