Conference Agenda

Several European countries have implemented significant reforms in their healthcare systems over the past few years to manage and streamline healthcare expenditures. These reforms include implementing new spending limits, restructuring the hospital network, and establishing a moreefficient procurement system for healthcare products and services. Our study focuses on a crucial reform that has affected Italy since 2007: the introduction by the central government of Recovery Plans (RPs) to address the financial burden of regions with significant deficits in their health accounts. We utilise a two-step procedure. Firstly, we estimate the productivity of Italian hospitals from 2000 to 2018, considering three-year time intervals. Then, we consider two mediation models that explain the relationship between austerity measures and hospital productivity. We find that RPs have negatively impacted the technological change component by reducing investments in infrastructure and innovation. Additionally, this negative impact is mediated by the transition from the ordinary to the day hospital regime.

Wearable health devices have been designed to assist healthcare workers in monitoring the health status of patients since their invention. Wearable health devices promise to overcome countless healthcare challenges, such as staff and supply shortages, capacity strain, worker exposure, and, most importantly, patient health. The COVID-19 pandemic renewed and escalated worldwide interest in wearable health devices. Academia and Industry are actively developing an optimal wearable health device, yet there is a need for an agreement on the optimal vital measures to be monitored. In the current study, healthcare professionals were surveyed to capture healthcare workers' attitudes and preferences toward the functions and features that wearable health devices should have to optimize their adoption. Respondents indicated that accuracy and ease of use were the top desired attributes. They suggested that heart rate, body temperature, and oxygen saturation are vital for optimal remote health monitoring and patient care. Prioritizing vital signs: a survey healthcare professionals on the features and functions of wearable health devices

Over the past two decades, the Italian healthcare system has undergone significant transformations, with changes in financing, structure, and mediation. This research delves into the implications of these shifts and their impact on the efficiency of Italian hospitals, particularly from 2015 to 2021. This analysis has two phases. In the first phase, we assess healthcare efficiency using bootstrapped Data Envelopment Analysis, a robust and widely accepted method. Using truncated regressions, the second step examines the effects of specialisation and organisational factors on efficiency, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the complex dynamics. Our results show that diversity, calculated using the Blau index, has a negative effect on efficiency. In other words, the higher the hospital's specialisation, the higher its overall efficiency rate. These results offer insights that can contribute to informed decision- making and strategic planning in the Italian healthcare system about improving provider performance, market conditions, specialisation, and hospitals.