Dr Irene Papanicolas COW 3.04 and Prof Andrew Street COW 1.02

This course is compulsory on the Executive MSc in Health Economics and Policy (LSE and Chicago). This course is not available as an outside option.

Health systems are increasingly introducing more systematic ways to assess the performance of health services and health care organizations. This course considers the opportunities and challenges associated with measuring the performance of these entities and how measurement can be translated into performance improvement. In particular, the course will examine: the key dimensions of health care performance, including: health improvement, patient experience and cost of care; the measurement instruments and analytic tools used to measure the performance of the entire health system and of health care organizations within systems; and the implications of measurement on incentive and policy design for policy makers and regulators. Lectures draw on case studies from in high-income countries but the conceptual ideas are of general relevance to all countries and contexts.

This course will be delivered online over a period of six weeks in Lent Term. The course will be delivered as a combination of lectures and seminars, totalling a minimum of 30 hours. Students will have access to lecture material delivered as short online videos. Seminars will take place online and students will work in small groups on structured learning activities set by the course lead.

The formative assessment is an early draft of the first section of the essay

• Papanicolas I and Smith PC (Eds), Health System Performance Comparison: An agenda for policy, information and research. Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2013.
• PC Smith, E Mossialos, I Papanicolas S. Leatherman (Eds), Performance measurement for health system improvement: experiences, challenges and prospects. Cambridge University Press, 2010;
• Berwick, Donald M., Thomas W. Nolan, and John Whittington. The triple aim: care, health, and cost. Health affairs 27.3 (2008): 759-769.
• PC Smith, A Street (2006) Concepts and challenges in measuring the performance of health care organisations. The Elgar Companion to Health Economics, Edward Elgar.

Essay (100%, 3000 words) in the LT.

Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.