The European Commission’s Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health, has published a document setting out a definition of value based healthcare and providing recommendations about how it should be implemented. The paper notes that present discourse around “value” in the context of healthcare is often focused on outcomes relative to the cost of inputs, solely focused on increasing cost-effectiveness.The expert group notes that this definition is too narrow and suggests it would be more helpful to acknowledge multiple values which underpin healthcare. Specifically, the paper outlines a definition which encapsulates:
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Appropriate care to achieve patients’ personal goals (personal value)
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Achievement of best possible outcomes with available resources (technical value)
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Equitable resource distribution across all patient groups (allocative value)
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Contribution of healthcare to social participation and connectedness (societal value).
The panel also made six recommendations as to how this approach could be embedded within healthcare systems:
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Creating greater awareness of health as an essential investment in an equal and fair European society
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Developing a long-term strategy for a step-by step value-based approach towards change of culture
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Supporting research & development of methodologies on appropriateness and unwarranted variation
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Encouraging health professionals to take responsibility and feel accountable for increasing value in healthcare
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Supporting the creation of Learning Communities, including communities of health professionals
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Supporting initiatives for patients’ engagement in shared decision-making.
A short summary of the paper can be found here: https://ec.europa.eu/health/expert_panel/sites/expertpanel/files/fact_sheets/2019_defining-value-vbhc_factsheet_en.pdf
The full document can be found here: https://ec.europa.eu/health/expert_panel/sites/expertpanel/files/docsdir/024_defining-value-vbhc_en.pdf
