The benefits of an integrated social medical insurance for health services utilization in rural China: evidence from the China health and retirement longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: Improving health equity is a fundamental goal for establishing social health insurance. This article evaluated the benefits of the Integration of Social Medical Insurance (ISMI) policy for health services utilization in rural China. METHODS: Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal study (2011‒2018), we estimated the changes in rates and equity in health services utilization by a generalized linear mixed model, concentration curves, concentration indices, and a horizontal inequity index before and after the introduction of the ISMI policy. RESULTS: For the changes in rates, the generalized linear mixed model showed that the rate of inpatient health services utilization (IHSU) nearly doubled after the introduction of the ISMI policy (8.78 % vs. 16.58 %), while the rate of outpatient health services utilization (OHSU) decreased (20.25 % vs. 16.35 %) after the implementation of the policy. For the changes in inequity, the concentration index of OHSU decreased significantly from - 0.0636 (95 % CL: -0.0846, - 0.0430) before the policy to - 0.0457 (95 % CL: -0.0684, - 0.0229) after it. In addition, the horizontal inequity index decreased from - 0.0284 before the implementation of the policy to - 0.0171 after it, indicating that the inequity of OHSU was further reduced. The concentration index of IHSU increased significantly from - 0.0532 (95 % CL: -0.0868, - 0.0196) before the policy was implemented to - 0.1105 (95 % CL: -0.1333, - 0.0876) afterwards; the horizontal inequity index of IHSU increased from - 0.0066 before policy implementation to - 0.0595 afterwards, indicating that more low-income participants utilized inpatient services after the policy came into effect. CONCLUSIONS: The ISMI policy had a positive effect on improving the rate of IHSU but not on the rate of OHSU. This is in line with this policy's original intention of focusing on inpatient service rather than outpatients to achieve its principal goal of preventing catastrophic health expenditure. The ISMI policy had a positive effect on reducing the inequity in OHSU but a negative effect on the decrease in inequity in IHSU. Further research is needed to verify this change. This research on the effects of integration policy implementation may be useful to policy makers and has important policy implications for other developing countries facing similar challenges on the road to universal health coverage.

Addressing the health advocate role in medical education.

The health advocate role is an essential and underappreciated component of the CanMEDs competency framework. It is tied to the concept of social accountability and its application to medical schools for preparing future physicians who will work to ensure an equitable healthcare system. Student involvement in health advocacy throughout medical school can inspire a long-term commitment to address health disparities. The Social Medicine Network (SMN) provides an online platform for medical trainees to seek opportunities to address health disparities, with the goal of bridging the gap between the social determinants of health and clinical medicine. This online platform provides a list of health advocacy related opportunities for addressing issues that impede health equity, whether through research, community engagement, or clinical care.First implemented at the University of British Columbia, the SMN has since expanded to other medical schools across Canada. At the University of Ottawa, the SMN is being used to augment didactic teachings of health advocacy and social accountability. This article reports on the development and application of the SMN as a resource for medical trainees seeking meaningful and actionable opportunities to enact their role as health advocates.

Protección de la salud en el trabajo: de lo indemnizatorio mercantil al real cuidado de la salud / Protection of health at the workplace: from monetary compensation to true health care

Este artículo cuestiona los mecanismos de protección de la salud en el trabajo desarrollados internacionalmente hasta ahora por el campo de la seguridad y la salud en el trabajo. Su objetivo fue hacer un análisis de los enfoques de la salud ocupacional y el aseguramiento que han estructurado la praxis hegemónica de la protección de la salud en el trabajo y contrastarlos con el enfoque de la salud de los trabajadores proveniente del campo de la medicina social­ salud colectiva. La metodología usada para el desarrollo del artículo fue la de una investigación documental, conjugada con la experiencia en formación, investigación y organización en el campo de la salud de los trabajadores del autor del artículo. Las reflexiones epistémicas, ontológicas, metodológicas, políticas y prácticas, sobre la base de lo revisado documentalmente, permitieron sostener que a pesar de algunos beneficios de los mecanismos tradicionales de protección de la salud en el trabajo, los enfoques de la salud ocupacional y el aseguramiento no transforman las condiciones de trabajo que históricamente han generado efectos negativos sobre la salud y la vida de los trabajadores, mientras que el enfoque de salud del trabajador proporciona elementos que aportan a configurar una protección integral del cuidado de la salud en trabajo, con un sentido de autonomía y emancipación de los trabajadores y una apuesta real por la transformación tanto de las condiciones de trabajo, como de las del modo de producción(AU)

This paper questions the mechanisms of protection of health at the workplace currently applied globally in occupational safety and health. The author performed an analysis of occupational health and insurance approaches that have driven the hegemonic practice of occupational health protection, and contrasted them with an approach centered on workers' health coming from the field of social medicine/collective health. The methodology used for the development of the paper was that of a documentary investigation, combined with the author's experience in training, research and organization in occupational health. The epistemic, ontological, methodological, political and practical reflections, on the basis of the documentary review, allows the author to postulate that, despite some benefits of the traditional mechanisms of occupational health protection, these approaches do not transform the working conditions that have historically generated negative effects on the health and life of workers. In contrast, the workers' health-centered approach provides elements that contribute to configuring an integral protection of health care in the workplace, with a sense of autonomy and emancipation of workers and true commitment to the transformation of both working conditions and those of the means of production(AU)

Origins and Evolution of Social Medicine and Contemporary Social Medicine in Korea.

Social medicine is recognized as one of medical specialties in many countries. However, social medicine has never been formally introduced to Korea, presumably because the term and its principles were not accepted for some years in the past in American medicine, which has strongly influenced Korean medicine. This paper describes the origins and evolution of social medicine and briefly discusses contemporary social medicine in Korea. Social medicine was initiated in France and Germany in 1848. Since then, it has expanded globally and developed in diverse ways. Included in core principles of social medicine is that social and economic conditions have important effects on health and disease, and that these relationships must be subjected to scientific investigation. The term 'social medicine' is rarely used in Korea, but many of its subject matters are incorporated into preventive medicine which, besides prevention, deals with population health that is inescapably social. However, the Korean preventive medicine directs little attention to the basic concepts and principles of social medicine, upon which systematic development of social medicine can be based. Thus, it is necessary to supplement the social medicine contents of preventive medicine through formalizing the linkages between the two fields. One way of doing so would be to change the title of 'preventive medicine' course in medical colleges to 'preventive and social medicine,' as in many other countries, and to adjust the course contents accordingly.

Fundamental Interventions: How Clinicians Can Address the Fundamental Causes of Disease.

In order to enhance the "structural competency" of medicine-the capability of clinicians to address social and institutional determinants of their patients' health-physicians need a theoretical lens to see how social conditions influence health and how they might address them. We consider one such theoretical lens, fundamental cause theory, and propose how it might contribute to a more structurally competent medical profession. We first describe fundamental cause theory and how it makes the social causes of disease and health visible. We then outline the sorts of "fundamental interventions" that physicians might make in order to address the fundamental causes.

The necessity of social medicine in medical education.

Research and clinical experience reliably and repeatedly demonstrate that the determinants of health are most accurately conceptualized as biosocial phenomena, in which health and disease emerge through the interaction between biology and the social environment. Increased appreciation of biosocial approaches have already driven change in premedical education and focused attention on population health in current U.S. health care reform. Medical education, however, places primary emphasis on biomedicine and often fails to emphasize and educate students and trainees about the social forces that shape disease and illness patterns. The authors of this Commentary argue that medical education requires a comprehensive transformation to incorporate rigorous biosocial training to ensure that all future health professionals are equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to practice social medicine. Three distinct models for accomplishing such transformation are presented: SocMed's monthlong, elective courses in Northern Uganda and Haiti; Harvard Medical School's semester-long, required social medicine course; and the Lebanese American University's curricular integration of social medicine throughout its entire four-year curriculum. Successful implementation of social medicine training requires the institutionalization of biosocial curricula; the utilization of innovative, engaging pedagogies; and the involvement of health professions students from broad demographic backgrounds and with all career interests. The achievement of such transformational and necessary change to medical education will prepare future health practitioners working in all settings to respond more proactively and comprehensively to the health needs of all populations.

[Plea for a strengthening of clinical social medicine]. / Plädoyer für eine Stärkung der klinischen Sozialmedizin.

Social medicine is concerned--in the midst of a constantly changing society--with the social and economic conditions that influence health, disease and medical care. A comprehensive medical care therefore requires medical doctors who, beyond the biomedical issues, realize diseases in the context of the social needs of the individual person and systematically include these in their prevention, treatment and rehabilitation concepts.The system of social security, particularly the health care system, depends on medical doctors' expertise in helping patients for the appropriate use of services from the system of social security. According to the German professional education regulations for doctors the additional specialization in "social medicine" also includes the competence for "assessment of the nature and extent of health disorders and their classification in the framework of social security systems". This judgment is one part of the tasks of the Medical Services belonging to the various branches of the social security system. It is also provided in practice by medical doctors with competence in social medicine working in acute care facilities.

[Social medicine: does it still make sense in 2013?]. / Médecine sociate en 2013: quand la précarité précède la pauvrete.

Social medicine is a medicine that seeks to understand the impact of socio-economic conditions on human health and diseases in order to improve the health of a society and its individuals. In this field of medicine, determining the socio-economic status of individuals is generally not sufficient to explain and/or understand the underlying mechanisms leading to social inequalities in health. Other factors must be considered such as environmental, psychosocial, behavioral and biological factors that, together, can lead to more or less permanent damages to the health of the individuals in a society. In a time where considerable progresses have been made in the field of the biomedicine, does the practice of social medicine in a primary care setting still make sense?

[On medical and social work in the complex treatment of senile age patients with chronic heart insufficiency].

The section of medical-social work was entered for the first time into National Recommendations VNOC and OSSN on diagnostics and treatment of chronic heart failure, the second revision. The social help is especially important for persons of senile age and long-livers. It is expedient to study to what extent the employees of social service are ready to participate in the complex observation and treatment of these patients. Interrogation of 274 workers of the complex centers for in-home social service has been worked out. The level of knowledge on matters of conducting persons of senile age with chronic heart failure proved to be low. Majority respondents have not shown any readiness to join medical-social programs carried out by public health institutions.

Social medicine in the interwar years. The case of Jacques Parisot (1882-1967).

Hygiene, asserted the "Pasteurians", is "the very base of politics". Professor of preventive medicine at Nancy medical school, the phtisiologist Jacques Parisot well epitomized the style of a discipline that had soon shown interest for the avenues of action. Just as many other practical minds in Europe and elsewhere, he lamented the discrepancies between medical innovation and organizational change. However, as a French Professor medicine he had more latitude than his foreign colleagues to try bringing together the laboratory, medical education and the clinics. Chair of the Health Committee of the League of Nations from 1937 to the war, Parisot is an interesting case of these "Statesmen in disguise": to him social medicine, a science for action, was nothing but a vehicle to improve the Welfare of the community.