Italy: health system review.

Italy is the sixth largest country in Europe and has the second highest average life expectancy, reaching 79.4 years for men and 84.5 years for women in 2011. There are marked regional differences for both men and women in most health indicators, reflecting the economic and social imbalance between the north and south of the country. The main diseases affecting the population are circulatory diseases, malignant tumours and respiratory diseases. Italy's health care system is a regionally based national health service that provides universal coverage largely free of charge at the point of delivery. The main source of financing is national and regional taxes, supplemented by copayments for pharmaceuticals and outpatient care. In 2012, total health expenditure accounted for 9.2 percent of GDP (slightly below the EU average of 9.6 percent). Public sources made up 78.2 percent of total health care spending. While the central government provides a stewardship role, setting the fundamental principles and goals of the health system and determining the core benefit package of health services available to all citizens, the regions are responsible for organizing and delivering primary, secondary and tertiary health care services as well as preventive and health promotion services. Faced with the current economic constraints of having to contain or even reduce health expenditure, the largest challenge facing the health system is to achieve budgetary goals without reducing the provision of health services to patients. This is related to the other key challenge of ensuring equity across regions, where gaps in service provision and health system performance persist. Other issues include ensuring the quality of professionals managing facilities, promoting group practice and other integrated care organizational models in primary care, and ensuring that the concentration of organizational control by regions of health-care providers does not stifle innovation.

Italy: health system review

Italy is the sixth largest country in Europe and has the second highest average life expectancy, reaching 79.4 years for men and 84.5 years for women in 2011. There are marked regional differences for both men and women in most health indicators, reflecting the economic and social imbalance between the north and south of the country. Italy’s health system is a regionally based national health service that provides universal coverage largely free of charge at the point of delivery. The main source of financing is national and regional taxes, supplemented by co-payments for pharmaceuticals and outpatient care. In 2012, total health expenditure accounted for 9.2% of GDP. Public sources made up 78.2% of total health care spending. While the central government provides a stewardship role, setting the fundamental principles and goals of the health system and determining the core benefit package available to all citizens, the regions are responsible for organizing and delivering primary, secondary and tertiary health services as well as preventive and health promotion services. Faced with the current economic constraints of having to contain or even reduce health expenditure, the largest challenge facing the health system is to achieve budgetary goals without reducing the provision of health services to patients. This is related to the other key challenge of ensuring equity across regions, where gaps in service provision and health system performance persist. Other issues include ensuring the quality of professionals managing facilities, promoting group practice and other integrated care organizational models in primary care, and ensuring that the concentration of organizational control by regions of health care providers does not stifle innovation.

New methodology for estimating the burden of infectious diseases in Europe.

Mirjam Kretzschmar and colleagues describe the BCoDE project, which uses a pathogen-based incidence approach to better estimate the infectious disease burden in Europe.

Nuevas experiencias para comprender la complejidad / New experiences to understand complexity

La transformación de la relación de los ciudadanos con la ciencia y la tecnología inducida por la importancia inédita de las innovaciones científicas y técnicas en la sociedad contemporanea, constituye un verdadero desafío para los centros y museos científicos en tanto que canales de mediación de la apropiación social de la ciencia. Estos se ven confrontados a la necesidad de adaptarse e innovar con respecto a los modelos clásicos de presentación para tomar en cuenta la complejidad del mundo contemporaneo, e integrar cada vez más la actualidad científica y los grandes interrogantes de nuestro tiempo en las realizaciones y modo de expresión museísticos. Surgen así nuevas experiencias, donde la evolución técnica de los modos de mediación se combina con la integración de los contenidos científicos y técnicos en una perspectiva y una problemática social. Esta reflexión cubre igualmente el campo de la colaboración entre instituciones, a partir del ejemplo de experiencias realizadas por la Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie en relación con establecimientos y programas de difusión de la ciencia y la técnica en diferentes países de América Latina