Equity and resource allocation of medical interventions

Project co-operation: Claudia Wild, Ingrid Zechmeister
Duration: Mai 2008 - 2009

Literature search and - documentation: Beate Guba
Suggested by: LBI-HTA

Conference 'FairHealth: Equity & Resource Allocation of Medical Interventions' on March, 2nd 2009 in Vienna

Background:
The precarious situation of health care systems is evident. On the one hand, scarce budgets and high debts threaten the long-term financing of medical interventions for citizens. On the other hand, more and more cost-intensive medical innovations, which are to be made accessible to the public, appear on the market.

Aims and research objectives:
Apart from questions of use and efficiency of individual medical interventions, the FairHealth conference will deal with all those current problems and questions focusing on a fair distribution of medical performances. The need for such broad, public discussions primarily results from the socio-political, individual and economic meaning of ‘health’ as well as from recent debates concerning health care reforms.

Method:
In the light of this, the LBI-HTA has organised the FairHealth conference on March 2 2009, in order to discuss issues of equity and resource allocation of medical performances in a solidly financed health system. Besides theoretical analyses, the main conference foci will cover national and international practical examples, interdisciplinary approaches to research and HTA-perspectives, which stress different aspects of (in-)equity in health care. The conference is open to the public with free admission.

Core questions and main foci of the FairHealth conference:

1. Are health performances distributed unequally and „why“?
- Social factors of influence on health and illness
Why do we need fairly distributed health performances?
- Meaning of „social equity“ for the health system

2. Which equity approaches do exist from a legal-philosophical and economic point of view?
- Overview of equity concepts for the health care context

3. How “to design” fair and just health care for marginalised and/or socially disadvantaged groups? Which medical care deficits exist for children and adolescents and which arrangements might contribute to a fair health care in this field?
- Practical examples about an equal health care for disadvantaged groups in the health care system

4. Which health care policies are internationally pursued in order to promote equity in resource allocation
- International comparison of innovative examples for an equal allocation of resources and fair prioritisation process

5. How can HTA contribute to a fair distribution of health performances?
- HTA-methods and -instruments and their role in „the equity discourse“

AGENDA:

Furthermore, the LBI-HTA is planning a publication (book) which shall include the articles of the conference speakers as well as contributions from other outstanding national and international experts dealing with (in-)equity issues and resource allocation in the context of health care.
 

Location: Urania (Dachsaal), Vienna
Beginning: 8.30 a.m.
End: 5.30 p. m.
Contact, organisation and registration: Roman Winkler (roman.winkler@hta.lbg.ac.at)