Mini-Course

Global Health Care Systems and Pharmaceutical Policies: Lessons and Opportunities for Policy Reform

Joseph Antoun, MD, MPP, MHS, MPH (cand)

• Associate Public Policy Consultant, Eli Lilly and Company
• Fellow, London School of Economics

Course Details

Dates: April 7-9, 2009
Time: 3:00 - 4:20 p.m.
Location: Harris School, 1155 E. 60th Street, Quiet Study Area
RSVP online.

Course Overview

This course discusses the two major health policy challenges facing our world today: reforming health care systems and securing access to medicine to all patients around the world. The first two lectures will familiarize students with major health care systems around the world and provide effective tools to reform these systems. The third lecture will discuss major challenges in pharmaceutical policy and access to medicine and provide perspectives on what the international community could do to secure medications to all patients in need.

Syllabus

The three lectures will cover the following topics:

April 7 - Health care systems: design, goals and challenges
This lecture will explain the fundamental components and goals of a healthcare system and discuss the dynamic interaction between healthcare systems, history and politics. Finally, the lecture will provide students with strategic policy and health economics tools that policy leaders could use to reform healthcare systems.

Readings:

• "Tackling health inequities through action on the social determinants of health," WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, 2007.
• "Health financing policy: a guide for decision-makers," Joseph Kutzin, WHO Europe, 2008.

April 8 - Health care system and system reform in the US, UK, Russia, China and the Netherlands
This lecture will familiarize students with major schools of health care systems around the world and the challenges that those systems face in 2009 and beyond. The students will then have the opportunity to propose and discuss policy reforms aimed at improving the systems of US, UK, Russia, China and the Netherlands.

Readings:

• "Snapshots of Health Systems," Susanne Grosse-Tebbe and Josep Figueras (eds.), European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, WHO, 2005.
• "Health Systems in Transition: Template for analysis," Elias Mossialos, Sara Allin, and Josep Figueras (eds.), European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, WHO, 2007.
• "Comparative Health Care Policy: Lessons for (and From) America," Rudolf Klein, American Journal of Public Health, January 2003..

April 9 - Access to medicines: a myth, a dream ... or a challenge?
This lecture will address the current debate of whether access to medicine is a human right and whether universal access is practically possible. The lecture will explain the major economic and policy hurdles to access to medicines and what the international community is doing and could still do in order to provide treatment to needy patients.

Readings:

• "Achieving Universal Health Coverage: Developing the Health Financing System," Technical Briefs for Policy Makers, WHO, May 25, 2005.
• "The price of innovation: new estimates of drug development costs," Joseph A. DiMasi, Ronald W. Hansen, and Henry G. Grabowski, Journal of Health Economics, 2003.
• "Increased Length and Complexity of the Research and Development Process," PhRMA, 2003.