Publicaciones OECD

In recent years, the call for transparency in pharmaceutical pricing has gained momentum among policymakers and stakeholders. Following a resolution of the 72nd World Health Assembly and the establishment of the Oslo Medicines Initiative, there has been a concerted push for greater transparency in pricing practices. However, the exact scope of transparency measures remains unclear. Key questions persist regarding which prices and for which medicines should be disclosed, the conditions under which countries are willing to share this information, and the barriers hindering such efforts. To clarify these issues and advance the policy debate, the OECD examined the feasibility of sharing medicine price information across countries. A country survey was conducted to explore the willingness, expectations, and motives of governments and payers for sharing information on medicine prices. This report presents the key findings derived from the survey and concludes with an assessment of the feasibility of sharing net medicine price information among OECD countries.

Ensuring equal access to the latest cancer medicines is one of the most pressing challenges facing OECD health systems today. Despite the emergence of new oncology drugs, disparities in patient access—particularly through clinical trials and early access programs—remain a critical issue. Rising costs are also straining even the most affluent healthcare systems, making affordability a concern for all. This working paper examines various aspects of inequalities in access to cancer medicines, covering key stages in a medicine's life cycle, from marketing authorization to reimbursement decisions and uptake in clinical practice. The analysis draws on original findings from the 2023 OECD Policy Survey on Cancer Care Performance. It also explores potential strategies to stimulate competition among oncology medicine producers, which could create significant budget headroom, allowing reinvestment in new cancer medicines that offer substantial clinical benefits to patients.

Promoting health and well-being at the workplace is a valuable investment for employees, employers, governments, and society. Healthy employees are less likely to be absent or have reduced productivity. Employers benefit from improved work outputs, and health systems see reduced treatment costs. Digital tools and innovative technologies can enhance the effectiveness of health promotion programs. The market for these tools is growing globally, with employers keen to improve health and productivity. This working paper, through four case studies, underscores how wearables, mobile applications for female health, AI-driven lifestyle management applications, and health insurance engagement platforms can be utilized to promote health at the workplace. These technologies present avenues for enhancing the efficacy, efficiency, and customization of health promotion interventions. Nevertheless, they also pose challenges such as privacy issues, the requirement for digital proficiency, the necessity for conducive organisational practices for healthier work environments, and the assurance of safety and clinical suitability of the proliferating health applications and tools in the market.

Safety is a core dimension of health care quality. Measurement of patient safety culture in OECD countries has been increasingly conducted as part of efforts to monitor patient safety and to contribute to health system performance assessment. Building on four years of work, a second OECD data collection on patient safety culture was conducted in 2022-2023, with the support of the members of OECD Expert Group on Patient Safety Culture. Data from almost 650,000 health care workers, from over 3,000 different sites/hospitals, across 14 countries was added in this round of data collection. This report documents the state-of-the-art of patient safety measurement using the Hospital Survey of Patient Safety Culture (HSPSC) and is the first report to document international comparisions using the HSPSC v2, which has been recently adopted by ten countries who submitted data. Despite many commonalities between countries in the implementation of PSC measurements, there remains differences in the scope of implementation and survey response rates. Moreover, survey findings show general deficits in staff perceptions of safe staffing and workpace levels and response to errors among hospital workers, areas that could be targeted for policy action to improve patient safety.