Latest cross-country analysis
Cross-country analysis of health system responses and key policy lessons, including:
- How do the COVID-19 testing criteria differ across countries?
- How are countries creating extra bed and ICU capacity?
- How are countries keeping the rest of the health system operating?
Related Publications
See all >Health systems in action 2024: Israel
Health systems in action: Israel
Israel has a national health insurance system that covers all residents of the country. The system is centralized under the Ministry of Health, with four...
European public hospitals have undergone a process of change by which they remain publicly-owned but use incentives and follow practices similar to those...
Correspondents
See all >Authors
- Amit Meshulam
- Nadav Penn
- Gideon Leibner
- Shuli Brammli-Greenberg
Editors
Nathan Shuftan
Biography
Nathan is part of the Observatory team at the Berlin Hub, based at the Berlin University of Technology.
He conducts comparative health systems research, including topics such as health system performance assessment, health financing, integrated care and person-centered care, rehabilitation and workforce. His work covers health system and policy developments through projects like the State of Health in the EU programme, Health System Reviews (HiTs), policy briefs, peer-reviewed journal articles and Observatory studies. For the Observatory's country monitoring work, he is the editor of the Health System Policy Monitor Network (HSPM) platform for Cyprus, Czechia and Slovakia, led the work on the HiT on the Caribbean Netherlands, and has also published on other regions such as Africa, Asia and North America.
Nathan is pursuing a Doctorate of Public Health at TU Berlin. He earned a Master of Public Policy from the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin and holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Illinois. He is also a managing editor of the scientific journal Health Policy and teaches at the Berlin School of Public Health.
Publications:
Nathan Shuftan, Giada Scarpetti, Katherine Polin, Kaija Kasekamp, Daiga Behmane, Liubove Murauskiene, Verena Struckmann, Integrated care in the Baltic countries over a five-year period: an expert-informed cross-country analysis of progress, challenges and future directions, Health Policy, 2025, 105526, ISSN 0168-8510, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2025.105526
Shuftan, N., Dayan, M., Scobie, S. et al. The variation of coverage and access to palliative care for cancer patients in eight European countries: an exploratory vignette approach. BMC Palliative Care 24, 188 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-025-01831-1\
Smatana M, Löffler L, Pažitný P, Kandilaki D, Shuftan N. Slovakia: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition. Copenhagen: European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, WHO Regional Office for Europe; 2025. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
Winitsky S, Webb E, Polin K, Shuftan N, Waitzberg R. Strengthening rehabilitation care: learning from countries’ experiences on organizing service delivery and financing. Copenhagen: European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, WHO Regional Office for Europe; 2025. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
Shuftan N, O’Flynn J, Meijer J, Borst R, Verstraeten S, Courtar D, Frans G, van der Linden A, Madhuban I, Mercuur M, van Ginneken E. The Caribbean Netherlands: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition. Copenhagen: European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, WHO Regional Office for Europe; 2024. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.