Treatment of PPMS with OCR is more cost effective from a societal than a healthcare perspective, therefore prioritisation of public funding of novel pharmaceuticals for MS and other resource intensive chronic health conditions will depend critically upon the study perspective.
Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) provide a method for understanding preferences for service provision and there have been limited applications to the selection of community pharmacies. The validity and accuracy of DCEs rely upon the attributes and levels used. This paper aims to describe the development of a DCE investigating New Zealanders preferences for community pharmacies.
Exploring lived experience provides insights into the multiple ways that lack of affordability prevents access to medicines: directly, through interaction with other barriers to access including transport, by damaging trust and reducing acceptability of services, and by making participants less able to deal with mistakes made by health professionals.
Around 3500 New Zealand women will be diagnosed with breast cancer each year. Of these, 45% will be diagnosed through mammography screening, either through BreastScreen Aotearoa or through the private sector. Those diagnosed through screening have better outcomes and importantly more equitable outcomes for Māori and Pacific women.
Screening of at-risk, asymptomatic people can significantly reduce mortality from lung cancer. However, evidence about how to optimise lung cancer screening for specific populations, including Aotearoa New Zealand’s Indigenous Māori, who experience disproportionately higher rates of lung cancer, is needed to ensure that a future lung screening programme in Aotearoa New Zealand is equitable.
The data linkage approach has evidenced the benefit of a population register to facilitate equitable access to breast screening services. Further work is needed on choices of combined approaches for optimising screening uptake equitably.
The high rate of prescribing for probable gender dysphoria in New Zealand, and the decline after 2021, require further investigation.
Equity is given less attention than efficiency in HEE guidelines. This indicates that HTA agencies while subscribing to an extra-welfarist approach have a narrow evaluative space – focusing on maximising health and not considering the opportunity cost of the equity constraint.
The analysis showed that the inherent heteronormativity among health care professionals and the lack of clear and consistent information specific to sexual minority women may be key factors contributing to lower rates of engagement in screening.
New Zealand's coalition government has announced an expansion in funding for cancer treatments, enabling Pharmac (Wellington, New Zealand), the country's drug-buying agency, to introduce 26 new cancer treatments as a part of the 54 new medicines package.
HEALTH SERVICES AND SYSTEMS
EQUITY
Exploring the impacts of the health system on minorities within the population, notably including Māori, Pacifica, Asians and LGBTQI.
DRUGS, DEVICE AND DIAGNOSTICS
PUBLIC HEALTH
DIGITAL HEALTH
TE TIRITI