Sept. 6, 2016 Europe Practice

Implementing targeted cancer screening programmes in the Czech Republic

The Ministry of Health developed a national cancer screening programme to increase population uptake of existing screening services. Through this programme, health insurance companies proactively send at-risk enrolees personalized invitations to participate in cancer screenings; strong Ministerial leadership provided an overarching direction for the initiative, promoting alignment across key stakeholders; use of available data helped identify key problems and supported tailoring of activities to meet observed gaps in service delivery; national information campaigns, run through various media channels, supported efforts by educating the public on the importance of cancer screenings; the initiative prioritized a proactive approach to addressing cancer mortality, promoting a shift away from the reliance on reactive service provision.

Aug. 30, 2016 Europe Practice

Identifying high-risk chronic patients for targeted primary care intervention in Veneto, Italy

Adjusted Clinical Groups were introduced in primary care as a means to proactively target patients at high risk for chronic disease with personalized health interventions and preventive services; when designing the initiative, leaders sought out existing solutions from abroad which could be adapted for application in Veneto; gradual implementation of the initiative through a three-phase pilot project allowed time to explore, verify and refine activities before scaling up across Veneto; services were reoriented to become more proactive, nurses were awarded additional responsibilities related to patient outreach and patients’ own role in their care was increased; Veneto's existing strong data collection system was essential for allowing predictive risk modelling using Adjusted Clinical Groups. The initiative capitalized on the “goldmine” of data already being collected for administrative purposes.