Urban-rural disparities in hospital admissions for depression in Austria: A spatial panel data analysis.

Medical practice variation in mental healthcare is a useful indicator for policymakers aiming to improve the efficiency of healthcare delivery. Previous studies have shown strong regional variation in healthcare utilisation in Austria, which seems to be a by-product of regionalised institutional rules and healthcare service mix rather than epidemiology. We use a set of routine municipality-level healthcare data on hospital admissions for depressive episodes of adult Austrian patients from 2009 to 2014 to examine spatial patterns in healthcare utilisation in mental health.

Expanding the Pathogen Panel in Wastewater Epidemiology to Influenza and Norovirus.

Since the start of the 2019 pandemic, wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has proven to be a valuable tool for monitoring the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2. With methods and infrastructure being settled, it is time to expand the potential of this tool to a wider range of pathogens. We used over 500 archived RNA extracts from a WBE program for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance to monitor wastewater from 11 treatment plants for the presence of influenza and norovirus twice a week during the winter season of 2021/2022.

Supporting COVID-19 policy-making with a predictive epidemiological multi-model warning system.

Background: In response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the Austrian governmental crisis unit commissioned a forecast consortium with regularly projections of case numbers and demand for hospital beds. The goal was to assess how likely Austrian ICUs would become overburdened with COVID-19 patients in the upcoming weeks.

Methods: We consolidated the output of three epidemiological models (ranging from agent-based micro simulation to parsimonious compartmental models) and published weekly short-term forecasts for the number of confirmed cases as well as estimates and upper bounds for the required hospital beds.

Comorbidities and COVID-19 hospitalization, ICU admission and hospital mortality in Austria : A retrospective cohort study.

Background: The protection of vulnerable populations is a central task in managing the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic to avoid severe courses of COVID-19 and the risk of healthcare system capacity being exceeded. To identify factors of vulnerability in Austria, we assessed the impact of comorbidities on COVID-19 hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and hospital mortality.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed including all patients with COVID-19 in the period February 2020 to December 2021 who had a previous inpatient stay in the period 2015-2019 in Austria.

The weekend effect in stroke mortality: evidence from Austrian acute care hospitals.

Many studies provide evidence for the so-called weekend effect by demonstrating that patients admitted to hospital during weekends show less favourable outcomes such as increased mortality, compared with similar patients admitted during weekdays. The underlying causes for this phenomenon are still discussed controversially. We analysed factors influencing weekend effects in inpatient care for acute stroke in Austria.

Policies to Encourage the Use of Biosimilars in European Countries and Their Potential Impact on Pharmaceutical Expenditure.

Biosimilar medicines are considered promising alternatives to new biologicals with high price tags. The extent of savings resulting from biosimilar use depends on their price and uptake, which are largely shaped by pricing, reimbursement, and demand-side policies. This article informs about different policy measures employed by European countries to design the biologicals market and explores potential savings from the increased use of biosimilar medicines in Germany.

Austria: Health System Review.

This analysis of the Austrian health system reviews recent developments in organization and governance, health financing, health care provision, health reforms and health system performance. Two major reforms implemented in 2013 and 2017 are among the main issues today. The central aim of the reforms that put in place a new governance system was to strengthen coordination and cooperation between different levels of government and self-governing bodies by promoting joint planning, decision-making and financing.