IRDES Newsletter

17^th International Medical Geography Symposium (IMGS 2017)

The International Medical Geography Symposium is the leading international meeting of health and medical geographers. Every two years, the symposium welcomes health geographers and others interested in applying a spatial approach to their research to share findings and form new ideas about the progress of this exciting sub-discipline.
The 17^th IMGS will take place in France in July 2-7, 2017, hosted by University of Angers. The organizing committee, of which IRDES is a member, welcomes all those interested in health geography to attend this conference. The theme of this edition is "Practicing health and medical geography in 2017". Papers and posters presented at the conference will deal with a variety of health issues, including: social perspectives on health; health policy; health care and services; ageing; urban health; rural health; environment and health; GIS approaches; global health; health human resources and health inequities and inequalities.

Deadline to submit an abstract : January 30^th, 2017

 Presentation

 Call for papers

Reminder

Workshop on Health and Labour Policy Evaluation (HLPE)

Organised by IRDES, this international seminar on health and labour policy evaluation will take place in Paris 1- 3 February 2017.

 Presentation

3^rd IRDES Workshop on Applied Health Economics and Policy Evaluation

This third international seminar on health economics and public policy evaluation, organised by IRDES, will take place in Paris 22-23 June 2017.

 Presentation

Out-of-Pocket Spending for Ambulatory and Hospital Care after Reimbursement by the French Public Health Insurance: Unequally Distributed Financial Burden

Perronnin M.

Issues in Health Economics (218), May 2016

The French Public compulsory health insurance scheme is characterized by "out-of-pocket payments" (OOP) on most of the care it covers, namely nearly a quarter of the expense on care and medical goods consumption (CSBM) in 2015 (Beffy et al., 2016). These public OOP are paid by private complementary health insurance or by households themselves. They are made of a superposition of financial contributions introduced over time: public copayments, daily allowances, lump sum contributions, extra fees... These financial contributions vary depending on the type of care consumed; they can reach high and hamper access to care by the poorest.
In this study, every financial contribution is studied according to its contribution to the inequalities in OOP based on income and distinguishing ambulatory and short-stay hospital care. The financial contributions for hospital co-payments and per-diem fees, appear the most inequitable. They are generally reimbursed in full by the complementary insurance, but 5% of people are not covered by such insurance and are therefore exposed to the full charge of OOP.

Spatial Practices and Access to Healthcare

Lucas-Gabrielli V., Pierre A., Com-Ruelle L., Coldefy M. (Irdes)

IRDES Report (564), October 2016, 98p.
In French

This research report deals with the question of patients' effective access to healthcare. The objective is to understand what leads the patient to consult a doctor (general practitioner or specialist) or to choose a more distant health facility that the one available closest to his place of residence. To do this, we analyzed healthcare consumption when the patient moves, either within outpatient or hospital care (short stays).
This study was carried out by exploiting the 2010 IRDES Health, Health Care and Insurance Survey (ESPS) matched with the ambulatory and hospital consumption data from the National Health Insurance Inter-regime Information System (SNIIRAM, Système national d'information inter-régimes de l'Assurance maladie) and the Hospital episodes database (PMSI, Programme de médicalisation des systèmes d' information).
In outpatient sector as well as in the short-term hospitalization sector, the analysis highlights how the context influences the choice of the patients and how their individual characteristics interfere in this relationship. Overall, poor accessibility of health care supply leads patients to move more often, reduces their ability to freely choose a health care professional and questions the link between territorial and spatial accessibility to healthcare supply.

Atlas of Medical Practice Variations, The Use of Ten Common Surgical Procedures

Le Bail M., Or Z., Co-edition DGOS-ATIH-IRDES

IRDES Books (2), November 2016, 56p.
In French

The first French Atlas of variations in medical practice, this book offers an overview of ten surgical procedures among 33 topics identified by public authorities as priority in terms of appropriateness and quality of care, equity of access to healthcare on the territory and efficiency in the allocation of human and financial resources. These ten surgical procedures were selected because they were identified in the international literature as sensitive to supply of care and to patients' preferences.
The Atlas illustrates the differences in surgical practices between departments and questions their causes in order to reduce unwarranted variations. It addresses both health professionals and users of the healthcare system, health institutions and researchers: the first, to encourage them to compare their own practices, the second to provide them with transparent information, and the last to stimulate them to produce objective information to better understand the causes and consequences of the variations observed.

Payers' Views of the Changes Arising through the Possible Adoption of Adaptive Pathways

Ermisch M., Bucsics A., Vella Bonanno P., Arickx F., Bybau A., Bochenek T., van de Casteele M., Diogene E., Fürst J., Garuoliene K., van der Graaff M., Gulbinovic J., Haycox A., Jones J., Joppi R., Laius O., Langner I., Martin A. P., Markovic-Pekovic V., McCullagh L., Magnusson E., Nilsen E., Selke G., Sermet C., Simoens S., Sauermann R., Schuurman A., Ramos R., Vlahovic-Palcevski V., Zara C., Godman B., Frontiers in Pharmacology, vol 7, article 305, 2016/09, 1-9.

Without Explicit Targets, Does France Meet Minimum Volume Thresholds for Hip and Knee Replacement and Bariatric Surgeries?

Weeks W-B, Ventelou B., Or Z., International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 10/08/2016, 1-2.

... Catherine Sermet, on the occasion of the publication of Issues in Health Economics (220), July-August 2016: "Disinvestment Strategies for Pharmaceuticals: An International Review of 5 countries".

• What is drug disinvestment and why studying this subject?
• What are the main results of the international literature review on disinvestment?
• What lessons can be drawn from this study in terms of public policy?

 Read the interview