1st Croatian Health Economics Workshop 8-10 June 2023 – Opatija, Croatia
Perspectives on the resilience of healthcare systems
The multiple challenges of aging societies, growing demand for long-term care, increased burden for the healthcare workforce, and shrinking budgets for public healthcare systems are common to most high-income countries. Despite facing vastly similar health systems’ challenges, most Central and Eastern European countries (including EU-member states and non-member states) lag behind in terms of innovations in the ways their healthcare systems are organised and issues tackled. Additionally, compared to Western Europe, the region has a substantial gap in terms of economic development, with various countries still in a middle-income status, which makes the fiscal constraints even more salient.
The 1st Croatian Health Economics Workshop aims to stimulate an academic discussion around these topics, fostering a closer collaboration between scholars with interest in health, labour and public economics, within Croatia, Central and Eastern Europe as well as internationally. More generally, the workshop hopes to serve as a platform for exchanging best practices and transferring knowledge within Central and Eastern Europe and the international community. The workshop will primarily focus on the following broad themes:
Financial sustainability: The increase in health care costs at a faster pace compared to the rates of healthcare budget expansion or GDP growth beg the question of how sustainable the current health systems are in the long run. Around this broad theme, the workshop welcomes evidence on approaches to prioritise innovative technologies/interventions, system reorganizations contributing to more efficient and effective healthcare delivery, policies reducing socioeconomic health inequalities in access and health outcomes or policies increasing population coverage, as well as similar topics.
Long-term care and aging: The increasing demand for long-term care in response to both ageing and an increased burden of chronic conditions calls for profound changes in the design of healthcare systems. Among multiple challenges, three key elements of interest are (1) finding ways to ensure appropriate funding, (2) ensure continuity and integration of care, and (3) maintain equity of access for disadvantaged socioeconomic groups.
Data linkage and outcomes measurement: Although it is often perceived as an obvious pre-requisite, appropriate approaches to measure health and healthcare outcomes should not be taken for granted. Two big areas of interest are (1) innovative approaches to administering, linking and using administrative datasets, and (2) integration of quality-of-life measures in broader evaluations of healthcare policies or changes to the organisation of healthcare services.
Healthcare workforce: Shortage of healthcare workers – especially in primary care – are a common issue across the board. Clear solutions to tackle this problem have not yet been found. The workshop welcomes contributions broadly providing evidence on the implications of and the potential solution for the health workforce crisis, including assessments of strategies to expand the skill-mix in primary and hospital care, interventions to improve retention, and studies outlining the trade-offs faced by healthcare providers themselves.
Financial incentives: There is solid evidence that financial incentives change behaviours of healthcare providers and patients. Whether these changes in behaviours are always geared towards a more efficient, effective and equitable provision of healthcare is much less clear. For this theme, the workshop seeks novel evidence on the response of healthcare providers and patients to financial incentives, focusing for instance on (1) distributional effects, (2) unintended effects and externalities, (3) effects on efficiency, (4) cost-effectiveness of provider payment reforms, (5) reducing moral hazard.
Preference may be given to papers proposing studies specific to the Central and Eastern European countries or to authors with substantial links or affiliations to Central and Eastern Europe. Early Career Researchers are particularly encouraged to submit.
WORKSHOP FORMAT
The workshop aims to create a supportive environment to discuss, critique and ultimately improve scholarly work, as well as a learning experience for all participants. The workshop will accept 14 full papers. Each accepted paper will be assigned a discussant who will receive the paper ahead of the workshop. Tentatively, papers submitted by Early Career Researchers will be discussed by expert senior academics.
Each session will run as follows: (a) a brief presentation by the author (15 min), (b) a thorough discussion of the paper by the assigned discussant (15 min), (c) open discussion with the audience (5 min).
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
If you want to present your paper and have it discussed at CHEW, please submit your abstracts (max 350 words, preferably structured) via email to chew@efri.hr no later than 17th March, 2023. Early Career Researchers are particularly encouraged to submit.
IMPORTANT DATES
Abstract submission: 17th March, 2023
Notification of acceptance: 1st April, 2023
Full paper submission: No later than 12th May, 2023
The workshop will start on Thursday 8th (afternoon) and close on Saturday 10th June (early afternoon) 2023.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
The workshop will host contributions from two distinguished keynote speakers:
· Prof. Aleksandra Torbica (Università Bocconi, President-Elect of the European Health Economics Association)
· Prof. Joan Costa-i-Font (London School of Economics)
VENUE, LOGISTICS, FEES
The workshop will be held in Opatija, Croatia. The details of the venue will be announced soon.
Participants will be asked to pay a 350 € fee inclusive of accommodation (2 nights, Thursday 8th and Friday 9th June) with breakfast, lunch and a conference dinner.
The workshop will run in parallel to the 2023 EDT Conference, 8-10 June, 2023.
Senior academics who are interested in participating to CHEW just acting as discussants for papers submitted by junior academics are also welcomed to announce their interest by 17th March via email.
If you are interested in participating but have question about travel, logistics, registration, visa or fees, please contact us via email at chew@efri.hr.
ORGANIZINING COMMITTEE
· Prof. Ana Bobinac (University of Rijeka, HR, Chair)
· Prof. Nikolina Dukić Samaržija (University of Rijeka, HR)
· Igor Francetić (University of Manchester, UK)
· Lana Kovačević (Imperial College London, UK)
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTE
· Prof. Ana Bobinac (University of Rijeka, HR)
· Lana Kovacevic (Imperial College London, UK)
· Prof. Matt Sutton (University of Manchester, UK)
· Prof. Maarten Lindeboom (Free University of Amsterdam, NL)
CROATIAN HEALTH ECONOMICS ASSOCIATION
The workshop will also mark the founding meeting of the Croatian Health Economics Association.
More information will follow on our website https://www.efri.uniri.hr/en/centre_for_health_economics_and_pharmacoeconomic/334
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