COPD in Ukraine: overview of the status and prospects for improvements and developments in health care system

Abstract

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is an actual problem for healthcare systems in different countries taking in account it`s high morbidity, mortality, impact on quality of life and related costs. COPD in Ukraine could be one of the most valuable medical and socio-economic problems as for developing country, the human capital affected by COPD is the most important national asset. The access to drugs is critical especially for COPD patients, medications for basic therapy are very expensive, while intended for use permanently. This study was performed to investigate the status with COPD in Ukraine and determine possible ways for improvements and developments in COPD management and related processes in healthcare system in Ukraine. The following areas were investigated: epidemiological data, data in COPD management, health economics data and targeted literature review. Results showed that very limited epidemiological COPD data are available in Ukraine. There are favorable conditions for good COPD management in Ukraine because of availability of the adopted guidance and the unified clinical protocol that cover prophylaxis, diagnostics, treatment and rehabilitation of COPD patients. Ukrainian clinical guidance in COPD management has external validity and is expected to be updated on regular basis. There were several country-specific Health Economic studies focused on COPD but these studies have limitations due to substantial assumptions and extrapolations from small to large populations. More Health Economics large-scale studies needs to be performed in Ukraine. Results of current study, also, showed that COPD is a relevant topic for pulmonology research in Ukraine.

Cost-effectiveness study of diagnosis strategies of acute viral infections in Ukraine

“…Our method of analysis is based on existing or developed algorithms of diagnosis of viral infections, which can analyze diagnostic strategies with different approaches [15][16] . In this case it can be considered to use only one diagnostic strategy (strategy (i)).…”