B3134 - HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH AND HUMAN RESOURCES

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

The course focusses on how to shape healthcare systems and organizations to improve health outcomes relying on health services research and the management of human resources. At the end of the course, the student will be familiar with a set of economic and interdisciplinary tools that provide a rigorous framework to understand the role of health services research and to model decision-making in healthcare organizations. In particular, the course will use economic theory, selected empirical evidence and case studies to outline the tradeoffs implied in alternative financial mechanisms and organizational designs, and to foster innovation and human resource management. The specific topics considered vary over time, but they will include the organization of integrated care under the paradigm of patient-centered healthcare systems, the tools to foster appropriateness in clinical practice, the role of medical research in evolving healthcare systems; the recruitment and training of healthcare personnel; the role of workforce incentives. The student acquires competencies in: 1) analysing current and new models in healthcare financing and management and their implications for equity of access, cost, and quality of care; 2) understanding and modelling the links between organizational settings, workforce incentives and health outcomes; 3) applying different methods to evaluate innovations in health programs and policies.

Contenuti

Long term sustainability of health care systems

Population health management

The organization of primary and intermediate care

The role of clinical governance tools

The funding and organization of biomedical research

Testi/Bibliografia

The reading list and the slides are available on Virtuale.

Metodi didattici

Classes and discussions.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

Students regularly attending the lectures can take the exam discussing a presentation on one of the themes dealt with during the course. Those who do not choose to give the presentation have to take a written test to assess their ability to critically evaluate some of the themes discussed during the course. In the written test, students are given outlines to develop short essays in two hours. Students can choose the approach that is more coherent with their own background. However, they are expected to address the proposed themes with a good level of rigour and appropriateness and to take into consideration the interdisciplinary nature of the issues at stake. Evaluations for the final grade: Sufficient preparation only on a few questions, limited ability to perform a critical analysis of the literature, fairly appropriate technical language → 18-19; Fairly good preparation on most questions, good ability to perform a critical analysis of the literature, appropriate technical language → 20-24; Good preparation on all questions, very good ability to perform a critical analysis of the literature, good mastery of technical language → 25-29; Exhaustive preparation on all questions, very good ability to perform a critical analysis of the literature and to develop connections between references, full mastery of the technical language → 30-30L.

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

Video projector.

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Gianluca Fiorentini

Consulta il sito web di Pietro Biroli