Council of Observers;
Credit: National Health Observatory
Monday 17 October 2022 marked the official launch of Luxembourg's National Health Observatory (Observatoire national de la santé - ObSanté).
The National Health Observatory is an administration placed under the authority of Luxembourg's Minister of Health. However, it enjoys scientific and professional independence with regard to its observation tools, its findings and its proposals.
The purpose of the National Health Observatory is to guide health decisions and policies, assess their impact through networking data (health status, health determinants, non-monetary resources and use of the health system and of care). In other words, it must generate information with the available data and put this information into perspective (historical comparison, international benchmarking) to identify areas for improvement.
"I am counting on the National Health Observatory to provide us with information on the health system measured and analysed on objective and validated bases, which will help us to make informed decisions in the future in terms of public health policy", specified Paulette Lenert, Luxembourg's Minister of Health.
The law of 2 March 2021, creating a National Health Observatory, specifies the missions of this administration, its governance and its internal organisation.
The missions of the National Health Observatory are multiple. Firstly, its mission is to assess the state of health of the population in terms of morbidity and mortality, risk behaviours of the population by improving knowledge of information on the determinants of health and the quality, efficiency and accessibility of the health system and to identify health inequalities between different population groups.
Moreover, the National Health Observatory studies the development and adequacy of the resources of health professionals working within the health system to meet the health needs of the population. It also publishes and disseminates information on the state of health of the population and the health system resulting from its assessment and the results of studies relating to the resources of health professionals.
The National Health Observatory also proposes to the Health Minister public health priorities aimed at improving the state of health of the population, the health system and the state of resources in health professionals and draws up the health map referred to in Article 3 of the law of 8 March 2018 relating to hospital establishments and planning.
The National Health Observatory is piloted by a Council of Observers, i.e. national or international experts from the scientific, academic or institutional community. Observers (see below) are appointed by Grand Ducal decree on the proposal of the Health Minister for a period of seven years in one of the areas of expertise covered by the law of 2 March 2021. A full member and a substitute member are appointed for each area of expertise. Among the observers, a president is appointed who is also the head of this new administration.
Public health: Françoise Berthet, President, and Karine Chevreul
Epidemiology: Corinne Alberti and Pedrag Duric
Health systems analysis: Kenneth Grech and Juliane Winkelmann
Registry management: Dionne Kringos-Pereira Martins and Claudine Backes
Population health studies: Arnaud Chiolero and Maria Ruiz-Castell
Health statistics/biostatistics: Laetitia Huiart and Michel Vaillant
Health economics: Thomas Dominique and Marc Suhrcke
Demography: Serge Allegrezza and Louis Chauvel
Patient-reported outcome measures: Guy Fagherazzi and Dorijan Marusic
"We are honoured to be able to count on high-level experts to guide the National Health Observatory in its work and priorities", commented Dr Françoise Berthet, President of the National Health Observatory.
The Council of Observers decides on the various reports and proposals, the areas and orientations of the multi-year work programme, the budgetary proposals and the National Health Observatory's requests for human or technical resources. The council also gives its opinion on all questions falling within the National Health Observatory's area of competence that the Health Minister submits to it or that she takes up herself.
The National Health Observatory also has a multidisciplinary team of about ten people.
The first year of the National Health Observatory will be mainly devoted to the creation and implementation of its working environment. The first line of work aims to establish: a catalogue of data and the sources of this data; a dashboard of indicators; the IT environment allowing data analysis; the online publication of interactive dashboards.
The second line of work concerns the writing of an analytical and exhaustive review of the Luxembourg health system, in collaboration with the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.
The third axis concerns the annual thematic analysis reports, containing the National Health Observatory's findings and proposals on one or more areas that have been determined as priorities by the Council of Observers.
Finally, the National Health Observatory will draw up a comprehensive national report every three years on the state of health of the population, the determinants of health and the health system with its findings and proposals, including a description, analysis and evaluation of the health status of the population, the determinants of health and the health system and a description, analysis and evaluation of public health policies.
