Through its research and surveillance systems, it provides reliable information about the population’s state of health, health determinants and risk prediction indicators, which allows public authorities to build their prevention and healthcare finance projects and to evaluate the effectiveness of these. It identifies the health services resource requirements and carries out healthcare economic analysis.
ACTIVITIES
The Centre for Health Studies has directed its development towards the following areas of activity:
- cross-disciplinary epidemiological studies of the general public,
- monitoring of cohorts,
- public health surveillance systems, particularly public health registers,
- clinical epidemiology research, in collaboration with clinicians,
- evaluation of health services and resource requirements,
- economic evaluation of healthcare.
Research themes related to diseases which are prevalent in Europe and Luxembourg:
- cerebro-cardiac and heart disease, and their risk factors: diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, nutrition and physical activity,
- cancer and more notably, survival analysis compared with therapeutic models and procedures,
- neuro-degenerative diseases associated with ageing, such as Alzheimer's,
- mental health problems .
This research programmes are aimed at:
- measuring the prevalence and/or incidence of illnesses in the general population, as well as risk factors,
- identifying health determinants and particularly protecting factors,
- developing health risk indicators,
- pinpointing vulnerable groups of people
- measuring the accessibility and equality of access to healthcare,
- comparing the effectiveness of new therapeutic patient care models,
- evaluating the effectiveness of policies which have been implemented.
Health at all ages of life is measured and analysed: from the surveillance of antenatal care, to the health of young people or to that of adults and the elderly.
At the same time, the Centre for Health Studies is developing methodologies and tools for determining the hospital resources which are required in order to meet patient needs. It is contributing to the development of measurement and quality indicators of hospital activity.
The Centre for Health Studies has developed its expertise in the management of health data, in the development of software for setting up health registers and surveillance systems which are completely computerised. It also produces public health indicators which allow Luxembourg to be compared with other European countries.
Lastly, as an administrator of the Health Portal for the Ministry for Health, it contributes to information about professionals and the population related to health and to healthcare organisation.