Abdominal Wall Surgery: How Reimbursement Systems Can Change Surgical Evolution

Description:

This book presents different patient-oriented perspectives from surgeons, economic evaluation and management researchers, and business companies active in the healthcare sector, striking a balance between the appropriateness/effectiveness of treatment and efficiency/cost. It does not include technical surgical details, but instead provides the necessary knowledge regarding different groups of patients to help economic and management researchers make accurate evaluations. Although partially based on the specific case of abdominal wall surgery in the Italian health system, the book defines a model that can, with the necessary adaptations, be applied in other national contexts. It also analyzes different reimbursement systems and methods of data collection. This approach supports the evolution from evidence-based medicine (EBM) to the future of real-world data (big data analysis). Further, it highlights the critical issue of “silos” reimbursement, which is the pillar of DRG, and proposes methodology to evaluate the direct and indirect benefit and costs of surgery (for example quality of care, costs incurred in cases of surgical complications due to the use of inappropriate, low-cost material or due to surgical procedure. It is a valuable resource for clinicians, surgeons, policymakers and managers in the field.

Table of Contents:

1. The Evolution of Surgery

Part I. Abdominal Wall

2. Anatomy of the Abdominal Wall

3. Clusters of Pathology and Interventions

4. Unit of Wall Surgery

5. Organization and Certification of Abdominal Wall Surgery

6. Biomaterials in Abdominal Wall Surgery

7. Care Settings

8. Preventing Incisional Hernias: Closure of Abdominal Wall, Follow-Up in Abdominal Surgery

Part II. Economics

9. State-of-the-Art of Abdominal Wall Surgery in Italy: Coding, Reimbursement, Hospitalisations and Expenditure for Surgical Meshes

10. Presurgical Hidden Costs: Imaging, Assessment Clinic

11. Post-Surgical Hidden Cost: Neuralgia

12. Post-surgical Hidden Costs: Infections

13. Basic Principles of Health Technology Assessment, Economic Evaluation, and Costing of Healthcare Programs

14. Economic Modeling and Budget Impact Analysis in Abdominal Surgery: The Case of Mesh

Part III. Outcomes

15. How to Measure Outcomes in Surgery

16. Present and Future of EBM in Inguinal Hernia Repair and Abdominal Wall Reconstruction

17. Health Technology Assessment in Abdominal Wall Surgery

Part IV. Future Perspectives

18. Stakeholders’ Opinion

19. Evolution of Abdominal Wall Surgery in Non-developed Countries

20. How Social Patterns Affect the Development of Science and Medicine

Part V. Conclusions

21. Ferrying to the Future