PhD defence G. (Gijsbert) Steinmann

Summary:

In many health care systems across the globe, value-based health care has quickly become a remarkably popular concept. Yet, despite its global popularity, the meaning of the concept remains shrouded in ambiguity, and efforts to put value-based health care into practice are characterized by a high degree of local variability. This makes it rather challenging to grasp the essence of this seemingly influential concept, let alone evaluate its effects within health care systems. A Scramble for Value addresses that challenge.

The thesis traces the journey of value-based health care from its original conception by Harvard business scholar Michael Porter to its global popularity, and zooms in on its interpretation and application in the Netherlands. As the original set of ideas runs into the historically rooted institutions of the Dutch health care system, the meaning of value-based health care gets moderated, and its application conforms to the very structures it once so boldly set out to reform.
 
It is by overlaying rather than overthrowing those traditional structures that value-based health care has ignited a renewed focus on outcomes that matter to patients, and amplified multidisciplinary efforts to improve those outcomes. All in all, this can be seen as quite an accomplishment—not bad for a foreign bunch of (vague) management ideas.