Addressing the large and growing burden of non-communicable diseases in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region requires better prevention and screening but also improving diagnosis, treatment, and control of the conditions once they have developed. This needs concerted action by health systems, healthcare providers and patients, as well as other stakeholders – such as … [Read more...] about Beyond Diagnosis: Improving Treatment and Control of Chronic Conditions
Sebastian Bauhoff
Dr. Bauhoff is a Principal Health Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank. He has worked on health policy for two decades in settings from Germany (his home country) to Colombia, with a focus on innovations in health care financing and service delivery that can increase access, efficiency, and quality of care. His recent work includes empirical impact evaluations of health insurance and results-based financing programs, and ways to use routine data to measure quality and target interventions. Dr. Bauhoff received a BSc from the London School of Economics, an MPA in International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School and a PhD in Health Policy/Economics from Harvard University. He previously held positions as Economist at the RAND Corporation, Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development, and Assistant Professor of Global Health and Economics at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
Preventing Unnecessary Deaths: Tackling Low Quality of Care
“In LAC, 70% of excess deaths that could have been avoided by adequate healthcare are due to low quality of care while 30% are due to lack of access to care.” This striking statistic is often used to highlight the importance of quality for health outcomes, including in the IDB’s Health Sector Framework. But what is the basis for this estimate, and what does it mean? What … [Read more...] about Preventing Unnecessary Deaths: Tackling Low Quality of Care
Can We Do Better than Normal for Health?
In the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic it is easy to both remain stunned by the pandemic’s impact and long for some kind of normalcy. That is certainly true for health systems in Latin America and the Caribbean, which were hit hard and are struggling to recover. But what should recovery look like? While it is tempting to be nostalgic about pre-pandemic times, those were … [Read more...] about Can We Do Better than Normal for Health?