The 2nd Latin American Forum for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, “Saving lives, improving quality and reducing the costs of health care” was held in Cartagena Colombia From 5 to 7 June 2013. It was organized by OES (Organizacion para la Excelencia en Salud), a Colombian and regional leader in health care quality.

Latin American and Spanish health leaders shared their experiences on enhancing care quality through robust leadership, with chronic disease management and integrative care models being central aspects for improving health care across the region.

The perspective and experience of NICE International was presented by Dr. Manuel Villarreal a GP from Worcestershire, who was born and trained in Colombia. Manuel talked about NICE’s contribution towards improving quality in the British NHS through informing General Practice, including quality standards and the Quality and Outcomes Framework. He also discussed opportunities for starting new or enhancing existing partnerships with Colombian institutions.

The NHS Bolton CCG, Clinical Director of Primary Care, Dr. Stephen Liversedge also presented a comprehensive model of chronic disease management prevention which was well received by the audience.

September 2009

The Colombian government is committed to making significant reforms to the healthcare system with the aim of increasing both the quality and efficiency of services provided. In common with many countries, the Colombian health system is facing multiple pressures relating to – in part – rising user expectations, demographic changes, and the availability of sometimes very costly health technologies.

In collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), NICE International has been assisting the Ministry of Social Protection (MoSP) in identifying effective policy options to help address these challenges based on cross country analyses of prioritisation strategies, and analyses of existing and future institutional frameworks to support priority setting in Colombia.

Recent legislation has led to the creation of an institution in Colombia dedicated to health technology assessment and the provision of healthcare guidelines. NICE International has provided advice on the terms of reference for this new institution known as IETS (Instituto de Evaluación Tecnológica en Salud), and submitted proposals on how it would interact with bodies responsible for drug licensing and quality monitoring. In providing this support to the MoSP, we have worked with the Instituto de Efectividad Clínica y Sanitaria (IECS) of Argentina for their expertise in, and links with, other Latin American Countries (Chile, Brazil and Uruguay).

In addition, NICE International has worked with local experts in Australia, Netherlands, USA and Germany in assessing priority setting strategies in those countries in support of this project.

Helping build health economics capacity at the Colombian Ministry of Social Protection

June 2009

NICE recently engaged in a project with the Colombian Ministry of Social Protection, funded by the regional office of the World Bank. The project consisted of two components:

  • a two-day training course in Bogotá with a focus on using economic evaluation to inform decision making in clinical guideline development
  • reviewing and commenting upon the draft guideline development methods document produced by the Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá.

The training workshop covered key principles underpinning economic evaluation as applied to health interventions, including the role generic health outcomes measures such as the QALY, modelling techniques, and also approaches to prioritising topics for economic analysis.