16th to 20th March 2015, Barcelona, Spain

WHO/Europe is pleased to announce the 5th annual Barcelona Course on Health Financing, a week-long intensive course offered through its WHO Barcelona Office for Health Systems Strengthening.
The deadline for receiving applications is 20 January 2015.

Barcelona Course on Health Financing 2015 in Casa de Convalescència (c) WHO

Programme
Addressing the theme of universal health coverage, the Course will:

– review policy instruments to improve health systems’ performance through better health-financing policy, focusing on revenue collection, pooling, purchasing and benefit design;
– explore topics related to universal coverage and the impact of the financial crisis on health systems, emphasizing policy instruments to achieve efficiency gains; and
– offer many examples of practical experience from the WHO European Region.

Each module will include interactive discussions between participants and trainers.
The course will be delivered in English.

The course reviews effective policy instruments to improve health system performance through better health financing policy. The course is built around the following modules:

– Coordinating reform – aligning policy instruments with policy objectives
– Raising revenues – thinking outside the box
– Pooling health revenues – the cost of fragmentation
– Purchasing – getting more health for the money
– Designing a benefit package – equity, affordability and transparency

You can find the detailed information on the official WHO Website.

Read the brochure on Barcelona Course in Health Financing.

Faculty

The core training team is composed of:
Tamás Evetovits,
Head of the WHO Barcelona Office for Health Systems Strengthening a.i., WHO/Europe;

Melitta Jakab,
Senior Health Financing Policy Analyst, WHO/Europe;

Sarah Thomson,
Senior Health Financing Specialist, WHO/Europe;

Joseph Kutzin,
Head, Health Financing Policy Team, WHO headquarters.

Invited speakers will join the faculty for keynote session.

Barcelona Course on Health Financing 2015 in Casa de Convalescència (c) WHO

Target groups

A maximum of 50 participants will be accepted. The Course is designed for policy-makers in the health sector or in charge of social policy, senior managers of service-provider organizations and experts involved in health system reform. Potential participants are expected to have prior generic training on and extensive work experience in health systems. The selection of participants will be based on the relevance of the Course topics to applicants’ work functions and their level of previous training in strengthening health systems and English-language skills.

Registration fee

To take part in the Course, participants will be charged a registration fee of €100, payable on acceptance of their applications. This fee will not be refunded in case of cancellation.
WHO covers the costs of tuition, course materials, coffee breaks and lunches on all five days of the Course, and one evening reception with dinner.
Participants (or their funding agencies) will be responsible for covering the costs of travel, accommodation and subsistence while in Barcelona. Special rates will be arranged at hotels close to the venue.
If a participant declines or fails to pay the registration fee on time, his or her place will be offered to a candidate from the waiting list.

Reviews

The Barcelona Course on Health Financing is a new annual training opportunity, first launched in 2011. This is an advanced course for professionals interested in deepening their understanding of health financing policy options.
“This course sets a new standard for delivering a training programme.  Room for improvement? I’d change as little as possible,”
said Jaakko Yrjö-Koskinen, Ministerial Counsellor, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland.

“The most useful part is now having a framework to think about health systems,”
commented Dirk Göpffarth, Head of Risk Adjustment Unit, German Federal Social Insurance Agency.
“I found the country cases most useful and they helped us to not only think about models, but the context and the right moment to introduce reforms,”
added Svetlana Cotelea, Deputy Minister of Health, Republic of Moldova.

World Health Organization

Venue

Casa Convalescencia
Autonomous University of Barcelona
Carrer de Sant Antoni Maria Claret, 171
08041 Barcelona, Spain
Tel.: +34 935 81 74 01

Application

Reunions i Ciencia is managing the application process on behalf of WHO/Europe.
To secure a place, applicants are invited to submit a completed online application, using the form available on the course website.

Contact
For further inquires, contact Ruth Oberhauser at WHO/Europe:
email: whobar@euro.who.int
tel.: +34 607 07 07 23.

You can find the detailed information on the official WHO Website.
Read the brochure on Barcelona Course in Health Financing.

Tip: More up to date educational events dealing with healthcare can be found online on the Education Database »medicine & health«.