This project, conducted at the University of Turku in collaboration with Uppsala university, aims to understand how governance mechanisms are connected with variation in costs for medicines, equality and quality of prescribing. The project produces novel policy-relevant evidence through comparison of Swedish regions. Sweden has decentralized medicine budgets and management, and regions have developed various strategies to promote sustainable use of medicines. The project 1) evaluates the validity of prescribing quality indicators and their applicability in the Nordic healthcare context using systematic review and Delphi method, 2) examines and compares regional variation in prescribing quality, costs and equity in medicine use across regions in Sweden and Finland using register data, 3) explores governance models across Swedish regions using interviews and considers the connection between governance models and variation in medicine use using comparative qualitative analysis (QCA).

2023

2027