The holy grail of modern medicine is better heath and better healthcare at a lower cost – the so-called ‘Triple Aim’ - but how far along is the United States on its journey? The latest issue of Health Affairs delves into practices from other countries and lessons the United States could absorb as it sets out to accomplish this triple pursuit.  

April 2013 Issue Highlights:

• A study by Panos Kanavos of the London School of Economics and Political Science and coauthors that compared prescription drug prices among selected Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries and found that drug prices in the United States were 5 percent to nearly 200 percent higher than other nations
• Research from Joshua Cohen of the Center for the Study of Drug Development at Tufts University and coauthors that looked critically at the US failure to systematically approach oncology drug effectiveness in the midst of rising drug costs, among other topics
• A piece by Geraint Lewis, chief data officer of England's National Health Service, and coauthors on how to identify patients at risk of “triple failures” – when all three goals of better health, better care and lower cost are not achieved – and utilize population health analytics to successfully target that group
• In another study, Ewout van Ginneken of the Berlin University of Technology in Germany and coauthors offered five recommendations for the United States as it embarks on health insurance exchanges as gleaned from reform efforts in Switzerland and the Netherlands.
• An analysis of hospital payment systems in five European countries presented by Wilm Quentin of Berlin University of Technology and co-authors, and what approaches could work best in the United States.

Check out the latest issue below: