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Health technologies are advancing rapidly and becoming more expensive, posing a challenge for financing healthcare systems. Health technology assessment (HTA) improves the efficiency of resource allocation by facilitating evidence-informed decisions on the value of health technologies. Our study aims to create a customized HTA roadmap for Oman based on a gap analysis between the current and future status of HTA implementation.

We surveyed participants of an advanced HTA training program to assess the current state of HTA implementation in Oman and explore long-term goals. A list of draft recommendations was developed in areas with room for improvement. The list was then validated for its feasibility in a round table discussion with senior health policy experts to conclude on specific actions for HTA implementation.

Survey results aligned well with expert discussions. The round table discussion concluded with a phasic action plan for HTA implementation. In the short term (1–2 years), efforts will focus on building capacity through training programs. For medium-term actions (3–5 years), plans include expanding the HTA unit and introducing multiple cost-effectiveness thresholds while from 6–10 years, publishing of HTA recommendations, critical appraisal reports, and timelines is recommended.

Although the HTA system in Oman is still in its early stages, strong initiatives are being taken for its advancement. This structured approach ensures a comprehensive integration of HTA into the healthcare system, enhancing decision-making and promoting a sustainable, evidence-based system addressing the population’s needs.

This survey explores the application of real options theory to the field of health economics. The integration of options theory offers a valuable framework to address these challenges, providing insights into healthcare investments, policy analysis and patient care pathways.

This research employs the real options theory, a financial concept, to delve into health economics challenges. Through a systematic approach, three distinct models rooted in this theory are crafted and analyzed. Firstly, the study examines the value of investing in emerging health technology, factoring in future advantages, associated costs and unpredictability. The second model is patient-centric, evaluating the choice between immediate treatment switch and waiting for more clarity, while also weighing the associated risks. Lastly, the research assesses pandemic-related government policies, emphasizing the importance of delaying decisions in the face of uncertainties, thereby promoting data-driven policymaking.

Three different real options models are presented in this study to illustrate their applicability and value in aiding decision-makers. (1) The first evaluates investments in new technology, analyzing future benefits, discount rates and benefit volatility to determine investment value. (2) In the second model, a patient has the option of switching treatments now or waiting for more information before optimally switching treatments. However, waiting has its risks, such as disease progression. By modeling the potential benefits and risks of both options, and factoring in the time value, this model aids doctors and patients in making informed decisions based on a quantified assessment of potential outcomes. (3) The third model concerns pandemic policy: governments can end or prolong lockdowns. While awaiting more data on the virus might lead to economic and societal strain, the model emphasizes the economic value of deferring decisions under uncertainty.

This research provides a quantified perspective on various decisions in healthcare, from investments in new technology to treatment choices for patients to government decisions regarding pandemics. By applying real options theory, stakeholders can make more evidence-driven decisions.

Decisions about patient care pathways and pandemic policies have direct societal implications. For instance, choices regarding the prolongation or ending of lockdowns can lead to economic and societal strain.

The originality of this study lies in its application of real options theory, a concept from finance, to the realm of health economics, offering novel insights and analytical tools for decision-makers in the healthcare sector.

This article aims to provide the current state of the art of the literature on the contribution of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on the measurement and management of performance in the healthcare sector. In particular, the work aims to identify current and emerging ICTs and how these relate to the performance measurement and management (PMM) cycle of healthcare organizations.

To address the research objective, we adopted a systematic literature review. In particular, we used the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) methodology to select articles related to the investigated topic. Based on an initial screening of 560 items retrieved from Scopus and ISI Web of Knowledge, we identified and analyzed 58 articles dealing with ICTs and PMM in the healthcare sector. The last update of the dataset refers to February 2024.

Although we attempted to address a relevant topic for both research and practice, we noticed that a relatively small sample of articles directly addressed it. Through this literature review, in addition to providing descriptive statistics of research on ICTs and PMM in healthcare, we identified six theoretical clusters of scientific streams focusing on the topic and eleven categories of ICTs effectively tackled by the literature. We then provided a holistic framework to link technologies to the different PMM phases and functions.

Nowadays, the availability of ICTs to support healthcare organizations’ processes and services is extensive. In this context, managers at various organizational levels need to understand and evaluate how each ICT can support different activities to benefit most from their adoption. The findings of this study can offer valuable insights to top and line managers of healthcare organizations for planning their investments in both existing and emerging ICTs to support the various stages of development and functions of PMM.

Most of the current literature focusing on ICTs in the healthcare sector refers to the contribution that technology provides to clinical processes and services, devoting limited attention to the impact of ICTs on administrative processes, such as PMM. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this represents the first literature review on the contribution of ICTs to PMM in the healthcare sector. The review, differently from other research focused on specific ICTs and/or specific PMM functions, provides a holistic perspective to understand how these technologies may support healthcare organizations and systems in measuring and managing their performance.

Value-based healthcare suggested using patient-reported information to complement the information available in the medical records and administrative healthcare data to provide insights into patients' perceptions of satisfaction, experience and self-reported outcomes. However, little attention has been devoted to questions about factors fostering the use of patient-reported information to create value at the system level.

Action research design is carried out to elicit possible triggers using the case of patient-reported experience and outcome data for breast cancer women along their clinical pathway in the clinical breast network of Tuscany (Italy).

The case shows that communication and engagement of multi-stakeholder representation are needed for making information actionable in a multi-level, multispecialty care pathway organized in a clinical network; moreover, political and managerial support from higher level governance is a stimulus for legitimizing the use for quality improvement. At the organizational level, an external facilitator disclosing and discussing real-world uses of collected data is a trigger to link measures to action. Also, clinical champion(s) and clear goals are key success factors. Nonetheless, resource munificent and dedicated information support tools together with education and learning routines are enabling factors.

Current literature focuses on key factors that impact performance information use often considering unidimensional performance and internal sources of information. The use of patient/user-reported information is not yet well-studied especially in supporting quality improvement in multi-stakeholder governance. The work appears relevant for the implications it carries, especially for policymakers and public sector managers when confronting the gap in patient-reported measures for quality improvement.

A large number of studies indicate that coercive forms of organizational control and performance management in health care services often backfire and initiate dysfunctional consequences. The purpose of this article is to discuss new approaches to performance management in health care services when the purpose is to support innovative changes in the delivery of services.

The article represents cross-boundary work as the theoretical and empirical material used to discuss and reconsider performance management comes from several relevant research disciplines, including systematic reviews of audit and feedback interventions in health care and extant theories of human motivation and organizational control.

An enabling approach to performance management in health care services can potentially contribute to innovative changes. Key design elements to operationalize such an approach are a formative and learning-oriented use of performance measures, an appeal to self- and social-approval mechanisms when providing feedback and support for local goals and action plans that fit specific conditions and challenges.

The article suggests how to operationalize an enabling approach to performance management in health care services. The framework is consistent with new governance and managerial approaches emerging in public sector organizations more generally, supporting a higher degree of professional autonomy and the use of nonfinancial incentives.

Despite the unparalleled importance of value within healthcare, value-based models remain underutilised in the procurement of medical devices. Research is needed to understand what factors incentivise standard, low-priced device purchasing as opposed to value-adding devices with potentially higher overall health outcomes. Framed in agency theory, we examine the conditions under which different actors involved in purchasing decisions select premium-priced, value-adding medical devices over low-priced, standard medical devices.

We conducted 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects scenario-based vignette experiments on three UK-based online samples of managers (n = 599), medical professionals (n = 279) and purchasing managers (n = 449) with subjects randomly assigned to three treatments: (1) cost-saving incentives, (2) risk-sharing contracts and (3) stronger (versus weaker) clinical evidence.

Our analysis demonstrates the harmful effects of intra-organisational cost-saving incentives on value-based purchasing (VBP) adoption; the positive impact of inter-organisational risk-sharing contracts, especially when medical professionals are involved in decision-making; and the challenge of leveraging clinical evidence to support value claims.

Our results demonstrate the need to align incentives in a context with multiple intra- and inter-organisational agency relationships at play, as well as the difficulty of reducing information asymmetry when information is not easily interpretable to all decision-makers. Overall, the intra-organisational agency factors strongly influenced the choices for the inter-organisational agency relationship.

We contribute to VBP in healthcare by examining the role of intra- and inter-organisational agency relationships and incentives concerning VBP (non-) adoption. We also examine how the impact of such mechanisms differs between medical and purchasing (management) professionals.

The objective of this study is to reevaluate the correlation among pharmaceutical consumption, per capita income, and life expectancy across different age groups (at birth, middle age, and advanced age) within the OECD countries between 1998 and 2018.

We employ a two-step methodology, utilizing two independent approaches. Firstly, we con-duct the Dumitrescu-Hurlin pairwise panel causality test, followed by Machine Learning (ML) experiments employing the Causal Direction from Dependency (D2C) Prediction algorithm and a DeepNet process, thought to deliver robust inferences with respect to the nature, sign, direction, and significance of the causal relationships revealed in the econometric procedure.

Our findings reveal a two-way positive bidirectional causal relationship between GDP and total pharmaceutical sales per capita. This contradicts the conventional notion that health expenditures decrease with economic development due to general health improvements. Furthermore, we observe that GDP per capita positively correlates with life expectancy at birth, 40, and 60, consistently generating positive and statistically significant predictive values. Nonetheless, the value generated by the input life expectancy at 60 on the target income per capita is negative (−61.89%), shedding light on the asymmetric and nonlinear nature of this nexus. Finally, pharmaceutical sales per capita improve life expectancy at birth, 40, and 60, with higher magnitudes compared to those generated by the income input.

These results offer valuable insights into the intricate dynamics between economic development, pharmaceutical consumption, and life expectancy, providing important implications for health policy formulation.

Very few studies shed light on the nature and the direction of the causal relationships that operate among these indicators. Exiting from the standard procedures of cross-country regressions and panel estimations, the present manuscript strives to promote the relevance of using causality tests and Machine Learning (ML) methods on this topic. Therefore, this paper seeks to contribute to the literature in three important ways. First, this is the first study analyzing the long-run interactions among pharmaceutical consumption, per capita income, and life expectancy for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) area. Second, this research contrasts with previous ones as it employs a complete causality testing framework able to depict causality flows among multiple variables (Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality tests). Third, this study displays a last competitive edge as the panel data procedures are complemented with an advanced data testing method derived from AI. Indeed, using an ML experiment (i.e. Causal Direction from Dependency, D2C and algorithm) it is believed to deliver robust inferences regarding the nature and the direction of the causality. All in all, the present paper is believed to represent a fruitful methodological research orientation. Coupled with accurate data, this seeks to complement the literature with novel evidence and inclusive knowledge on this topic. Finally, to bring accurate results, data cover the most recent and available period for 22 OECD countries: from 1998 to 2018.

The purpose of this paper is to present the learnings of a broker organization that started a new Population Health Management initiative in two regions in the Netherlands. The research focusses on the role of the broker organization itself in supporting stakeholders in the region to adopt a new implementation strategy designed by the broker organisation itself. The basis of this model was to organize, finance and monitor differently to improve the overall health of the population.

An action research approach was chosen to support the endeavours of the broker organization and to acquire practical knowledge on the role of a third-party in PHM implementation. Qualitative data were collected from documentary analysis, focus groups, logbooks and observational data from team meetings.

The main result is that the role of the broker organization to implement PHM was subject to change during the more than two years of the research. Several themes emerged that influenced these role changes, both internal and external, showing the complexity of providing PHM implementation support as a third-party to regional stakeholders.

We hypothesize that the role of a third-party changes depending on the maturity of the regional collaboration. The complexity of the transition in healthcare calls for constant adaptations, and thus learning and reflection, from all involved. Action research is a strong tool for this.

This paper is one of the first to report on the role of a third-party in PHM implementation. The action research methodology offered the right amount of flexibility to adhere to the complexity of the context and provided rich insights.

The challenges to healthcare caused by the COVID-19 pandemic forced hospital librarians to develop their abilities to cope with change and crises, both on a social level and an organisational level. The aim of this study is to contribute to knowledge about how hospital librarians developed library services during the pandemic and how these changes contributed to building information resilience in the healthcare organisation. This paper also seeks to explore how resilience theory, and specifically the concept information resilience, can be used within library and information science (in LIS) to investigate resilience in the library sector.

Nine semi-structured interviews with librarians were conducted at four different hospital libraries in four different regions in Sweden between March and May 2022. The empirical material was analysed through an interaction between the tzheoretical perspective and the empirical material through a thematic analysis. In each theme, specific resilience resources are identified and analysed as components of the information resilience developed by hospital librarians.

The results show that hospital librarians contribute to several different information resilience resources, which support information resilience in the healthcare organisation. Three aspects characterize the qualities of resilience resources: access, flexibility, and collaboration. The findings suggest that the framework for analysing information resilience used in this study is well suited for studying the resilience of libraries from both organisational and informational aspects.

The analysis of information resilience on an organisational level presents a novel way to study resilience in the library sector.

This study aims to assess the readiness of Islamic Higher Education Institutions (IHEIs) to enter the third wave of education or future quality assurance.

This study used a descriptive quantitative method with observation, documentation, a questionnaire and an interactive model. The sample population included lecturers and quality assurance managers in IHEIs, totaling 129 respondents.

The results showed that IHEIs were prepared to implement future quality assurance to meet individual and societal needs. Furthermore, readiness was also shown in the following matters: Relevance of higher education institution vision, implementation of tripilization learning in higher education institutions, understanding of other cultures (cross-cultural sharing), application of multiple development models and noble values of local wisdom and national culture in tri-dharma.

This study focused on the third wave of education quality assurance in IHEIs in Indonesia. However, the analysis was not conducted in all Indonesian universities as it specifically examined the readiness for implementing future quality assurance.

Policymakers should follow up on the readiness for implementing future quality assurance as a form of continuous improvement in managing the quality of IHEIs.

Most publications of quality assurance focused on compliance-oriented issues. However, this study aimed to fill the literature gaps and discuss the future quality assurance of IHEIs in Indonesia. In this context, future quality assurance was also known to guide IHEIs in rendering education relevant to the future needs of generations (graduates).