Placing the person at the centre of the health system: Concepts, strategies, results
The Observatory Venice Summer School 2017 is a one week intensive course that brings together policy makers, planners, managers, professionals and civil society representatives who will be learning, debating and sharing experiences about the conceptual, strategic and practical issues around achieving person‐centred health systems.
23–29 July 2017
Isola di San Servolo, Venice, Italy
Objectives: To
- explore how ‘person‐centredness’ is understood at the different levels of the system and by different stakeholders and what this means for the development of person‐centred strategies
- review key approaches to achieving person‐centred health systems in different contexts
- examine ways of monitoring the performance of person‐centred strategies
- assess the evidence about the impacts of person‐centred strategies at different system levels and understand who benefits and what the possible unintended consequences are
- discuss future trends, key challenges and policy options towards achieving person‐centred health systems
Why person‐centred health systems?
There is widespread acceptance that citizens should be at the heart of the health system. A person-centred approach is believed to benefit service users, health professionals and the health system. There is however a continuing debate about the actual meaning of person-centredness in the health care context and how it can be achieved at the different levels of the system. There is no one definition (are person- and patient-centred the same?) and lack of agreement of whether patient centeredness is a dimension of ‘good quality care’, a component of the broader idea of engaging patients and their carers in their health and health care, or indeed a complex strategy to innovate and implement long-lasting change in the way health services are organised and delivered.
Against this background, it is timely to revisit person‐centred care, taking a systems approach to better understand the use and usefulness of strategies that seek to give individuals and patients a greater role in the health system.
Approach: The six‐day course includes formal teaching but has at its core the experiences of participants in practice. A highly participative approach emphasises group work that cuts across themes, participant
presentations, round tables and panel discussions. It mobilises the latest evidence and a multidisciplinary team of experts with a track record in the analysis, implementation and evaluation of person‐centred health systems. Course
participants will also be able to share perspectives with and gain insights from key international organisations including the World Health Organization, the European Commission and relevant professional, governmental and civil society organisations
and to engage in political dialogue with senior policy makers. They will be part of the Summer School tradition, which fosters evidence‐based policy‐making and encourages European health policy debate by raising key
issues, sharing learning and building lasting networks.
MODULE 1: What do we mean by person‐centredness? Understanding the concepts
This module will focus on concepts of ‘person‐centredness’ and explore issues such as:
- What is person‐centredness and what problems is it intended to solve?
- What does person‐centredness mean in different contexts and to different stakeholders (is there a common understanding)?
- What experiences do countries across Europe have and what can we learn from these?
- How to think about person‐centred health systems: exploration of a possible policy framework
MODULE 2: Assessing the key strategies towards achieving person‐centred health systems
This module will assess the key approaches and strategies to achieve person‐centred health systems
and consider:
- The person as a citizen: involving people in health service and systems development and policies
- The person as a consumer: choosing payers, providers and treatments
- The person as a participant: co‐producing and commissioning services
- Who benefits? Analysing the impacts and results of person‐centred strategies
MODULE 3: Creating the preconditions and monitoring the impacts of person‐centred strategies
- What provisions need to be in place to protect people from the negative impacts of strategies seeking to strengthen the role of the individual in the system?
- How do we know that we have achieved person‐centred systems? The role of measurement and public reporting
Accreditation: the Summer School has applied to the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education and it is expected that participation will count towards ongoing professional development in all
EU Member States.
Organization: the Summer School is organised by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, the Veneto Region of Italy, the European Commission and World Health Organization with the participation of Vardanalys (the Swedish Agency for Health and Care Services Analysis).
Faculty: The Summer School will involve a group of expert lecturers and facilitators from international organizations and centres of expertise and will be led by Ellen Nolte (European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies) as Director.
Preparation:
- The course requires only limited preparation
- All materials will be made available on this site
Other information:
The Summer School involves an active social programme to facilitate networking and provide opportunities to enjoy the magnificent setting of Venice
The European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies supports and promotes evidence‐based health policy‐making through the comprehensive and rigorous analysis of the dynamics of health systems in Europe and beyond. It is a partnership that includes national governments and other authorities (Austria, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, the Veneto Region, the French Union of Health Insurance Funds), international organisations (the WHO Regional Office for Europe, European Commission, and World Bank) and academia (London School of Economics and Political Science, and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine).
The European Commission is the EU’s executive body. It represents the interests of the European Union as a whole (not the interests of individual countries). The Commission is committed to make Europe a healthier, safer place, where citizens can be confident that their interests are protected. It has been a partner of the European Observatory since 2009 and is promoting and facilitating exchange of best practice, and the preparation of elements for periodic monitoring and evaluation.
The Veneto Region seeks to ensure that empirical evidence and analysis reaches national and regional stakeholders and policy‐makers. It is involved in comparing health care systems across EU Member States. The Veneto Region is active in the area of cross‐border health care and plays a leading role in the EU in research and policy development. The Veneto Region, which has been a partner of the European Observatory since 2004, is hosting the Summer School because it is committed to providing a European platform for political debate on health matters, linking regional authorities to the EU debate.
The World Health Organization, Division of Health Systems and Public Health aims to assist Member States to design, adopt and implement comprehensive health and health systems policies, strategies and tools in line with the values of solidarity, equity and participation across the broad thematic areas of health systems governance, financing, services delivery and resource generation. The WHO EURO Office hosts the partnership of the Observatory. DSP and the Observatory work in close collaboration in a range of knowledge brokering activities such as the development of policy briefs and dialogues to support decision making.
