Performance of EU health care systems investigated

The kick off meeting of the ECHO Project (European Collaboration for Healthcare Optimization) took place in Zaragoza last 18th and 19th March 2010. This new European research project has been launched to describe the actual performance of six different Healthcare Systems at hospital, healthcare area, regional and country level.

Financed by the European Union FP7 programme and co-ordinated by the Institute for Health Sciences (I+CS) in Aragon (Spain), the ECHO project will be carried out in six European countries: Austria, Denmark, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom. Its methodology will be two fold. On one hand will use a population geographical-based approach, responding the question: Is the access to a diagnostic or surgical procedure dependant on the place where a person lives?. On the other hand will use a provider-specific approach, answering the question: Is the risk for a patient to access high quality care -and have better health outcomes- different regarding the provider in which he or she is admitted?

ECHO builds and expands on a previous I+CS co-ordinated Spanish project called Spanish Atlas VPM initiative (www.atlasvpm.org). The ECHO project aims at widening the Spanish ATLAS VPM experience to more conditions, procedures, therapies, populations as well as to other European healthcare systems.

ECHO Consortium gathers seven partners form seven different European Countries. The consortium is made up by a combination of six public institutes and high education organisations with a strong background on public health, health services and health economics research and by an international organisation devoted to linking health management policy, research and service delivery in Europe.

More information:
Enrique Bernal-Delgado MD PhD MPH MHecon
ECHO project coordinator [e-mail] ; Phone [phone]

Mots‑clés

• public health
• health services and health economics

Pays

Spain