Availability and financing of CAR-T cell therapies: A cross-country comparative analysis.

Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies (CAR-T therapies) are a type of advanced therapy medicinal product (ATMP) that belong to a new generation of personalised cancer immunotherapies. This paper compares the approval, availability and financing of CAR-T cell therapies in ten countries. It also examines the implementation of this type of ATMP within the health care system, describing the organizational elements of CAR-T therapy delivery and the challenges of ensuring equitable access to all those in need, taking a more systems-oriented view.

Challenges facing mental health systems arising from the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from 14 European and North American countries.

We assessed challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic presented for mental health systems and the responses to these challenges in 14 countries in Europe and North America. Experts from each country filled out a structured questionnaire with closed- and open-ended questions between January and June 2021. We conducted thematic analysis to investigate the qualitative responses to open-ended questions, and we summarized the responses to closed-ended survey items on changes in telemental health policies and regulations.

Critical pathways for continuous quality improvement: a multicentric analysis on the management of patients with lung cancer in Italian best performing hospitals.

Introduction: Critical pathways (CPs) are effective change management tools used to improve quality in healthcare nationally implemented in Italy in 2015. This study aims to map the country's state-of-the-art regarding the adoption of CPs and to verify the existence of factors that determine the success of their implementation and the relative entity of their impact, by analysing the management of Lung Cancer (LC) as a case-study.

Methods: Our methodology followed the SQUIRE guidelines for quality improvement reporting (2015).

A survey of experts on personalized medicine landscape in European Union and China.

Introduction: Personalized Medicine (PM) is one of the main priorities of the research agenda of the European Commission and the focus of the European Coordination and Support Action titled "Integrating China into the International Consortium for Personalized Medicine" (IC2PerMed). Similar to the European focus, PM is a current priority of the Chinese Government, through dedicated policies and its five-year investment plans. In the context of IC2PerMed, we implemented a survey to understand the state of the art of the implementation of PM related policies in EU and China, and to identify opportunities for future Sino-European collaborations.

Italy: Health System Review.

This analysis of the Italian health system reviews recent developments in organization and governance, health financing, health care provision, health reforms and health system performance. Italy has a regionalized National Health Service (SSN) that provides universal coverage largely free of charge at the point of delivery, though certain services and goods require a co-payment. Life expectancy in Italy is historically among the highest in the EU.