Social Values and Health Priority Setting: An International Comparative Analysis. (360G-Wellcome-095083_Z_10_Z)

All health care systems are facing the challenge of ensuring that high quality care is provided to the maximum number of people at a cost that the country can afford. This meeting brings together researchers and policy makers from a range of countries. Its specific objectives will be 1. To explore the different ways in which social values are understood in different national contexts 2. To identify cross-nationally how social values are incorporated into decisions about healthcare resource allocation 3. To assess the relative contributions of ethical analysis and public engagement in the development and application of those values. To facilitate these objectives, a position paper will be prepared with input from policy makers in the participating countries. The immediate output of the workshop will be a paper summarizing current international approaches. However, the workshop will lay the basis for a planned research programme aimed at understanding further the similarities and differences in the shape and expression of social values in priority setting, whether or how those social values are assessed, what is their political context, and the degree of consensus and diversity within each national setting in different countries across the world.