Health insurance fund project

Objective

The main objectives of the research of the AIGHD are to quantify and qualify the impact of the HIF health intervention on the quality of the health care provided by the participating clinics, and to demonstrate a possibly beneficial effect of the HIF health program on the health of the participating populations.

Background

The AIGHD has been contracted by the Health Insurance Fund (HIF) to perform independent operational research within the HIF-program as part of the May 2006 agreement with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The AIGHD focuses on epidemiological and bio-medical operational research. Therefore, AIGHD will provide the HIF with an independent external quality control of the medical part of the HIF program. Our research started with an inventory phase, during which a data collection system was set up in the participating clinics. These observational data are used to obtain a broad and comprehensive inventory of the health status and health care utilization of all the groups included in the HIF program. AIGHD uses these data as starting point for further in-depth research. The AIGHD will focus on the disease areas which are of greatest local medical and public health importance, occurring in primary and limited basic secondary health care services and which are preventable with some interventions. AIGHD produces reports with recommendations to improve screening, diagnostic and treatment strategies for the indicator diseases. The eventual aim will be to optimize the provided health care by introducing effective and innovative prevention and treatment modalities.

Summary