News
Evaluating chronic disease management. Recommendations for funders and users
February 2012
This report aims to explain choices, options and trade-offs to policymakers, programme operators and researchers for the evaluation of chronic disease management, based on analyses undertaken within the DISEMEVAL project. The report begins by setting out the context for evaluating disease management, exploring the reasons for undertaking evaluation in the first place and explaining some of the underlying principles for doing so. It examines methods and metrics of disease management evaluation, focusing specifically on themes that have emerged as being pertinent to work carried out within the DISMEVAL project and which are set against the background of the general literature on disease management evaluation. It further explores practical considerations for disease management evaluation, based on experience of work undertaken in DISMEVAL, while also examining some of the broader challenges and lessons learned that may be relevant for policymakers, funders and practitioners interested in the use and usefulness of disease management evaluation more generally. The report closes by drawing together the evidence compiled in this report and identifying themes for future work.
DISMEVAL. Developing and validating disease management evaluation methods for European healthcare systems. Final Report
February 2012
The DISMEVAL project’s three-year programme of work was developed around a set of key objectives, which included (1) to review current approaches to chronic care management and their evaluations, as implemented by EU Member States at national and regional level, (2) to explore the policy context for chronic disease management in European countries, (3) to develop and validate disease management evaluation methods using data from existing programmes and approaches through employing a range of evaluation designs and assessing the sensitivity of findings to selected methods, and (4) to formulate recommendations for scientifically sound yet operationally feasible evaluation approaches for chronic disease management that are relevant to planned and ongoing policies at the EU and wider European level as well as internationally. This final report presents the overall findings of the work carried out within the project.
6th Scientific Committee & 3rd Advisory Board Meeting
October 2011
The final meeting of the DISMEVAL Scientific Committee was held on 4 October 2011 in Salzburg in conjunction with the third meeting of the Advisory Board to the project. The meeting discussed the findings of work undertaken within DISMEVAL, with a particular focus on further developing and finalising the formal outputs of the project. It further discussed dissemination activities going forward and beyond the formal completion of the project in December 2011.
Evaluation of disease management in Europe: Country case studies report (Deliverable 4)
October 2011
The fourth deliverable of the project brings together the final outputs of work packages two through ten, requiring input from each work package lead involved. Each of the project’s six partner countries constitutes a case study of evaluation of disease management in Europe, reporting on the data acquired, analyses performed and main findings.
5th Scientific Committee Meeting
13 May 2011
The fifth meeting of the DISMEVAL Scientific Committee took place on 13 May 2011 in Madrid. The meeting discussed emerging findings from data analyses in work packages 5 to 10. The meeting also discussed preparation of the final report and a guidebook on methods and metrics for disease management evaluation as key output of the project. The latter is aimed at formulating recommendations for scientifically sound yet operationally feasible evaluation approaches for chronic disease management that are relevant to policies in Europe.
Chronic disease management in Europe – An overview of 13 countries (Deliverable 3)
March 2011
The third deliverable of the project (D3) reports on the findings of work carried out in work packages 2-4 of the project. These sought to (i) review current approaches to chronic care implemented by EU Member States at national and regional level and to examine whether and how these interventions are being evaluated and (ii) enhance our understanding of how macro-level health system features interact with interventions to improve chronic illness care through exploring the policy context for chronic disease management in European countries. The report examines 13 countries: Austria, Denmark, England, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland (the only non-EU country), based on data collected using a common template on approaches to chronic disease management in European health systems and on methods and metrics used to evaluate these approaches.
Technical Report on state of the art in disease management evaluation published online
January 2011
This report reviews the academic and grey literature to help advance the task of improving the science of assessing disease management initiatives in Europe. It provides a comprehensive inventory of current evaluation methods and performance measures, and highlights potential challenges to evaluating complex interventions such as disease management. Challenges identified are methodological, analytical and conceptual in nature, with a key issue being the establishment of the counterfactual. An array of sophisticated statistical techniques and analytical frameworks can assist in the construction of a sound comparison strategy when a randomised controlled trial is not possible. Issues to consider include: a clear framework of the mechanisms of action and expected effects of disease management; an understanding of the characteristics of disease management (scope, content, dose, context), and of the intervention and target populations (disease type, severity, case-mix); a period of observation over multiple years; and a logical link between performance measures and the intervention's aims and underlying theory of behaviour change.
DISMEVAL Workshop at the European Public Health Association Meeting
11 November 2010
Members of the DISMEVAL consortium contributed to aworkshop at the 3rd European Public Health Conference (10-13 November 2010). The workshop aimed to provide a forum for discussion of conceptual, methodological and policy-related challenges of the evaluation of delivery models targeting people with chronic conditions, and so inform the development of similar undertakings elsewhere. Workshop participants discussed issues pertinent to disease management evaluation, including selection bias (Germany and France); approaches to cost-effectiveness analysis (Austria and Denmark); and advancing existing approaches to evaluation (Netherlands and Spain). The workshop abstract is published in the European Journal of Public Health.
4th Scientific Committee & 2nd Advisory Board Meeting
9 November 2010
The fourth meeting of the DISMEVAL Scientific Committee was held over two days on 9 and 10 November 2010 in Amsterdam in conjunction with the second meeting of the Advisory Board to the project. The meeting discussed progress of work undertaken so far and provided an opportunity to present preliminary findings of work packages 4-10. It further discussed planned work for the third and final year of the project, including the preparation of a guidebook on methods and metrics for disease management evaluation, as well as dissemination activities going forward.
First Periodic Report (1 January 2009 – 30 June 2010)
August 2010
The DISMEVAL consortium reported to the Commission on its scientific and administrative activities during the first 18 months (1 January 2009 to 30 June 2010). A summary is available here.
Presentation of DISMEVAL Poster at the Health Services Research Conference
8-9 April 2010
A poster of the DISMEVAL project was presented at the first European health services research working conference in The Hague in early April 2010. The poster received good interest from conference participants and all available printed copies of the DISMEVAL Fact Sheet were taken.
Summary report of data collection and analysis plans
26 February 2010
The second deliverable to report on data collection and analysis plans for the project was submitted to the European Commission in February 2010. It reports on progress of work in the first twelve months of the project and summarises the process of the collection of data on approaches to chronic disease management and of whether and how such approaches are being evaluated. It also includes the detailed research plans for the testing and validating of disease management evaluations methods which will constitute the work to be carried in phase 2 of the project.
3rd Scientific Committee Meeting
29 January 2010
The third meeting of the DISMEVAL Scientific Committee was held on 29 January 2010 in Amsterdam in conjunction with the first meeting of the Advisory Board to the project. This meeting marked the completion of the first phase of the DISMEVAL project. It served as a platform to discuss the second stage of the project which involves empirical work on validating and testing of evaluation methods using existing data from programmes and initiatives in six countries targeting people with chronic illness and an assessment of the policy context for chronic care in European countries.
DISMEVAL Fact Sheet available
2 October 2009
The DISMEVAL Fact Sheet provides a brief overview of the project and the partners involved. It was disseminated at the European Health Forum Gastein, 30 September – 3 October 2009.
2nd Scientific Committee Meeting
London, 3 July 2009
The second formal Scientific Committee Meeting of the DISMEVAL project was hosted by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in July 2009. The meeting was an opportunity for all partners to report on progress made since the launch of the project in January and the next steps.
Report on the Project Launch, Deliverable 1
30 June 2009
The first deliverable to report on the launch of the DISMEVAL project, and plan its dissemination activities including a project website was sent to the European Commission on 30 June 2009. The report included a draft of the project’s dissemination plan which will form the basis for the project’s active dissemination practices which are contained in the project’s Work Package 12.
1st Scientific Committee Meeting
Brussels, 16 January 2009
The first formal Scientific Committee Meeting of the DISMEVAL project was hosted by RAND Europe’s Brussels Office in January 2009. This meeting marked the launch of the project which started on 1 January 2009 for 36 months. In kicking off the project, the meeting presented the first opportunity for several participants to be introduced and meet each other.