White paper on Value-Based Healthcare in Latvia released

May 02, 2022

RSU and online

On May 2, AmCham in cooperation with the Institute of Public Health of Riga Stradins University (RSU) released a White paper on Value-based healthcare (VBHC). The launch event included presentation of the document and a discussion among stakeholders. By summarizing best international practices and terminology, the White paper aims to improve the existing model of healthcare delivery and organization.

The paper is authored by Professor Daiga Behmane, Vice-Dean of Faculty of Public Health and Social Welfare at RSU un Alina Dudele, Lecturer at RSU and consulted by the AmCham VBHC work group, including our member companies and patient organizations. We would like to particularly thank our members Biogen, IQVIA, RSU, Medtronic, Novartis and Roche who supported the development of VBHC White paper and the launch event.

Daiga Behmane, Co-author of the publication gave an overview of the concept and international best practice examples of VBHC. Thomas Allvin, Executive Director Healthcare Systems at the Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations and Co-chair of the European Alliance for Value in Health presented more ongoing VBHC projects in Europe.

The panel discussion was joined by co-author of the VBHC concept Alina Dudele; Baiba Ziemele, President of the Latvian Patient Organizations' Network, Indra Dreika, State Secretary of the Ministry of Health; Aris Kasparans, Director of the National Health Service; Haralds Plaudis, Member of Executive Board of Riga East University Hospital and Kaspars Losans, Representative of the AmCham Healthcare work group.

The ageing population, the growth of chronic diseases and co-morbidities, the availability of new treatment technologies and personalized medicine, shift to more integrated delivery models are the main factors driving the growing demand for health services and digital health transformation. It puts a great pressure on healthcare system to create more efficient and sustainable models able to deliver real value for the patients with optimized cost. As in other countries, the growth rate of healthcare expenditure exceeds the growth rate of GDP in Latvia, but the total expenditure on healthcare per capita in Latvia is still one of the lowest among the European Union (EU) member countries.

The ageing population, the growth of chronic diseases and co-morbidities, the availability of new treatment technologies and personalized medicine are the main factors driving a rising demand for transformation of the healthcare sector. Although significant improvements have been made in healthcare over the past 20 years, cost-effectiveness and quality of services remain a challenge in many countries, including Latvia. VBHC is one of the most important conceptual approaches contributing to healthcare transformation, highlighting patient health outcomes as a primary goal.

According to Daiga Behmane, focus groups for patients and service providers were organized to assess the maturity of the Latvian healthcare system to implement the VBHC approach in practice. “Based on the obtained results, a strategic framework for the implementation of the concept was developed, which envisages the creation of a standardized clinical pathway for a specific group of patients with similar health needs, a map of the results to be achieved and a team of service providers involved. In turn, after the service, it is important to evaluate the achieved result and costs of patient’s treatment, to compare the results between service providers and to pay for the services on the basis of these performance indicators,” explained Daiga Behmane.

Public institutions are already implementing several projects that could be based on patient health outcomes in the future. “In cooperation with the Riga East University Hospital, we are working on the improvement of the Cancer Registry, including the structured arrangement of laboratory data to provide efficient and easily accessible data to the industry. We are also working to streamline the digital health ecosystem. All these projects could be based on the VBHC concept, and this year we plan to define specific criteria for the selection of value-based healthcare projects to implement them in the future,” said Aris Kasparans, Director of the National Health Service.

“The implementation of VBHC or its elements in the public healthcare system must be one of the main directions of the system reforms. Changes within the service provider organizations are also important –integrated services for each patient and disease group should be developed, in addition to effective ICT solutions that can provide and maintain a modern healthcare ecosystem,” said Kaspars Losans, AmCham Healthcare working group representative.

About VBHC approach:
Value-based healthcare (VBHC) is conceptual approach to the transformation of healthcare around the world aiming to improve patient health outcomes and the performance of the healthcare system while controlling rising healthcare costs. The VBHC builds on previously used concepts of health system governance, such as evidence-based healthcare, the application of health economic principles, and a comprehensive system of quality and patient safety, complemented by a healthcare payment system linked to the outcomes achieved.

To view the entire VBHC concept document: CLICK HERE
To view the Executive Summary (in English): CLICK HERE
To view the Executive Summary (in Latvian): CLICK HERE
To view the video of the event (presentations): CLICK HERE
To view the video of the event (discussion): CLICK HERE
To view the presentation of Daiga Behmane: CLICK HERE
To view the presentation of Thomas Allvin: CLICK HERE