The International Network Health Policy & Reform was initiated and set up in 2002. It currently brings together health policy experts from 20 industrialized countries. In
2005, selected countries from Central Europe, all EU-member states, also joined the network.
The network partners are highly qualified teams of researchers, specialized observers or advisers of the health policy making process.
Every six months, the experts report and comment on five or more health policy trends and developments from their countries. For this purpose, a semi-standardized questionnaire was
developed and agreed upon in cooperation with all network partners.
To date, more than 800 comprehensive reports can be looked up in our online database. Conducted in March 2003, the first survey
covered the period September 2002 to February 2003. To date, ten survey rounds have been carried out, with round thirteen due April 2009.
Findings from the half-yearly surveys are also disseminated the traditional way. A half-yearly printed report, published approximately four months after the survey, highlights selected health policy
issues.
Criteria for inclusion of issues in any survey round are innovation, potential impact on the status quo of a health care system, and transferability to other health care systems.
Participants at the 7th annual network meeting
in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
The network partners meet once a year for a continuing review of the goals, tools, and priorities of their work.
In 2002, a kick-off meeting took place at the Foundation's headquarters in Westphalia (West Germany). Since then, the group got together in Vienna in 2003, in 2004 at the new Bertelsmann
Conference Center in Berlin, in 2005 in Barcelona, in 2006 in Helsinki, in 2007 in Berlin, and in 2008 in Ljubljana.