The Health Systems in Transition (HiT) profiles are produced by country experts in collaboration with the Observatory’s research directors and staff. The profiles are based on a template that, revised periodically, provides detailed guidelines and specific questions, definitions, suggestions for data sources, and examples needed to compile HiTs. While the template offers a comprehensive set of questions, it is intended to be used in a flexible way to allow authors and editors to adapt it to their particular national context. The most recent template is available at: http://www.euro.who.int/Document/E88699.pdf
Authors draw on multiple data sources for the compilation of HiT profiles, ranging from national statistics, national and regional policy documents, and published literature. Furthermore, international data sources may be incorporated, such as those of the OECD and the World Bank. OECD Health Data contain over 1200 indicators for the 30 OECD countries. Data are drawn from information collected by national statistical bureaux and health ministries. The World Bank provides World Development Indicators, which also rely on official sources.
In addition to the information and data provided by the country experts, the Observatory supplies quantitative data in the form of a set of standard comparative figures for each country, drawing on the European HFA database. The HFA database contains more than 600 indicators defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe for the purpose of monitoring Health for All policies in Europe. It is updated for distribution twice a year from various sources, relying largely upon official figures provided by governments, as well as health statistics collected by the technical units of the WHO Regional Office for Europe. The standard HFA data have been officially approved by national governments. With its summer 2004 edition, the HFA database started to take account of the enlarged European Union (EU) of 25 Member States.
HiT authors are encouraged to discuss the data in the text in detail, including the standard figures prepared by the Observatory staff, especially if there are concerns about discrepancies between the data available from different sources.
A typical HiT profile consists of 10 chapters.
1 Introduction: outlines the broader context of the health system, including geography and sociodemography, economic and political context, and population health.
2 Organizational structure: provides an overview of how the health system in the country is organized and outlines the main actors and their decision-making powers; discusses the historical background for the system; and describes the level of patient empowerment in the areas of information, rights, choice, complaints procedures, safety and involvement.
3 Financing: provides information on the level of expenditure, who is covered, what benefits are covered, the sources of health care finance, how resources are pooled and allocated, the main areas of expenditure, and how providers are paid.
4 Regulation and planning: addresses the process of policy development, establishing goals and priorities; deals with questions about relationships between institutional actors, with specific emphasis on their role in regulation and what aspects are subject to regulation; and describes the process of HTA and research and development.
5 Physical and human resources: deals with the planning and distribution of infrastructure and capital stock; the context in which IT systems operate; and human resource input into the health system, including information on registration, training, trends and career paths.
6 Provision of services: concentrates on patient flows, organization and delivery of services, addressing public health, primary and secondary health care, emergency and day care, rehabilitation, pharmaceutical care, long-term care, services for informal carers, palliative care, mental health care, dental care, complementary and alternative medicine, and health care for specific populations.
7 Principal health care reforms: reviews reforms, policies and organizational changes that have had a substantial impact on health care.
8 Assessment of the health system: provides an assessment based on the stated objectives of the health system, the distribution of costs and benefits across the population, efficiency of resource allocation, technical efficiency in health care production, quality of care, and contribution of health care to health improvement.
9 Conclusions: highlights the lessons learned from health system changes; summarizes remaining challenges and future prospects.
10 Appendices: includes references, useful web sites, legislation.
Producing a HiT is a complex process. It involves:
The editor supports the authors throughout the production process and in close consultation with the authors ensures that all stages of the process are taken forward as effectively as possible.
