Supportive care during treatment for breast cancer: resource allocations in low- and middle-income countries. A Breast Health Global Initiative 2013 consensus statement.

Breast cancer patients may have unmet supportive care needs during treatment, including symptom management of treatment-related toxicities, and educational, psychosocial, and spiritual needs. Delivery of supportive care is often a low priority in low- and middle-income settings, and is also dependent on resources available. This consensus statement describes twelve key recommendations for supportive care during treatment in low- and middle-income countries, identified by an expert international panel as part of the 5th Breast Health Global Initiative (BHGI) Global Summit for Supportive Care, which was held in October 2012, in Vienna, Austria. Panel recommendations are presented in a 4-tier resource-stratified table to illustrate how health systems can provide supportive care services during treatment to breast cancer patients, starting at a basic level of resource allocation and incrementally adding program resources as they become available. These recommendations include: health professional and patient and family education; management of treatment related toxicities, management of treatment-related symptoms of fatigue, insomnia and non-specific pain, and management of psychosocial and spiritual issues related to breast cancer treatment. Establishing supportive care during breast cancer treatment will help ensure that breast cancer patients receive comprehensive care that can help 1) improve adherence to treatment recommendations, 2) manage treatment-related toxicities and other treatment related symptoms, and 3) address the psychosocial and spiritual aspects of breast cancer and breast cancer treatments.

[Competitiveness among health and the health sector. A new look at the health economics paradigm]. / La competitividad, la salud y el sector salud: una nueva vertiente del paradigma de economia y salud.

Health and the health sector have a direct impact on economic growth and competitiveness. Moreover, the health sector is experiencing increasingly strong links with the economy, which reinforces the key role that health plays in the development of individuals and economies. On the one hand, in addition to its intrinsic value health constitutes an important economic good because it contributes to increasing the capacity of individuals and nations to achieve greater levels of human, economic and social development. In addition, there is a direct relationship between health as a productive sector and the economy that will become more important as world health expenditure increases and because of recent advances in the productivity of the medical sector and the technology used in providing health services. For these reasons, a better understanding of the complex relationship between health, the health sector and economic development will help to increase competitiveness and attain higher levels of growth by enabling a more efficient health system that is in turn based on a solid, fair, equitable and sufficient financial base.