Intercultural mediators are employed to resolve linguistic and cultural barriers in a variety of health-care contexts. This report examines the main roles performed by intercultural mediators in health care across the WHO European Region and analyses evidence on their effectiveness in improving accessibi...
The provision of effective health care to linguistically and culturally diverse migrant populations has been identified as a crucial public health issue. This scoping review examines strategies that have been implemented and evaluated to address communication barriers experienced by refugees and migrants...
Health systems performance assessment (HSPA) varies across the WHO European Region. This review summarizes HSPA domains and indicators used by Member States in their HSPA or health system-related reports. Thirty Member States published in the English language and from their latest documents, 1485 distinc...
The term “quality tools” is used in many different ways to refer to a method used by an individual, a team, an organization or a health system. It is most often used in a narrow sense in American texts to refer to a set of simple “continuous quality improvement” methods (CQI tools). More broadly,...
“Grey zone” treatments are those that rely upon the patient’s judgement of associated benefits versus harms. When clinicians judge patients are eligible for “grey zone” treatments, their acceptance should be consistent with informed patients’ values. The question is how can one obtain informe...
In most countries the pressure for health care reform is aimed at improving the efficiency, equity and effectiveness of the health sector. Emerging evidence shows that health care reforms can affect men and women differently, as a consequence of their different positions as users and producers of health ...
Homeless people have poorer physical and mental health than the general population, and often have problems obtaining suitable health care. This synthesis has critically reviewed the international literature pertaining to the health care needs of homeless people in countries with relatively well-develope...
Governments are searching for ways to improve the equity, efficiency, effectiveness, and responsiveness of their health systems. In recent years there has been an acceptance of the important role of primary health care in helping to achieve these aims. However, there have been no systematic reviews on pr...
Over the last 20 years the level of private spending on health care has risen in many western European countries, leading to concern about its impact. The main channels of private spending are private health insurance policies and cost-sharing schemes in public health systems....
Chronic diseases account for most of the burden of disease in the European Region. Although there are effective interventions for the management of various chronic conditions, there are also wide practice variations in the delivery of care. DMPs are one of the measures intended to address this situation....