Dr Irene Papanicolas COW 3.04

This course is available on the MSc in Global Health Policy, MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing, MSc in International Health Policy and MSc in International Health Policy (Health Economics). This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course has a limited number of places (it is controlled access) and demand is typically high. Places are allocated first to students in the Department of Health Policy and then on a first come first served basis to students outside the department.

This course aims to present a framework to discuss the opportunities and challenges with performance measurement in health care, examine the various dimensions and levels of health system performance, identify the measurement instruments and analytic tools needed, and examine the implications of these issues for policy makers and regulators. Lectures generally focus on measuring health system performance in high-income countries but draw on the experience of other countries where relevant.

After taking this course students are expected to:

- understand the principles of performance measurement

- appreciate the challenges, approaches, and opportunities in performance measurement in four dimensions: population health, patient outcomes, equity, quality and appropriateness of care, and productivity

- understand the methodological issues facing performance measurement relating to risk adjustment, developing composite measures, and measuring attribution and causality

  - identify key issues relevant to policy makers relating to: developing targets and reporting on progress to the public, and developing incentives to improve performance

Teaching will be delivered in no less than 29 hours and includes lectures, seminars and workshops

Students will be expected to produce 1 piece of coursework in the LT.

Papanicolas I, Smith P (Eds) Health System Performance Comparison: An Agenda for Policy, Information and Research. Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2013;

P Smith, E Mossialos, I Papanicolas S. Leatherman (Eds), Performance measurement for health system improvement: experiences, challenges and prospects.  Cambridge University Press, 2010. 

Institute of Medicine, Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century. Washington, DC, National Academies Press, 2001;

OECD, Measuring up: improving health system performance in OECD countries. Paris: OECD, 2002. World Health Organization (WHO), (2000)

The world health report 2000:Health systems: Improving performance, Geneva: WHO Publications

Presentation (25%) in the LT.
Essay (75%, 3000 words) in the ST.

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