Managing National Health Care: Economics, Culture, and Strategic Choice

Central to the recent global debate on national health care are issues concerning economics and cultural values that drive decisions affecting the scale, scope, and delivery of health services (both preventive and treatment) provided for a country’s population. While most agree on the goal of seeking quality health care at an affordable price, wide disagreement exists, both within and across nations, about who (government, individual, or third party) should pay for what service and whether national health care should operate as a business, public welfare program, or a social enterprise. In the absence of clear evidence favoring one option over another, policymakers engage in “strategic choice” (Child, 1972), choosing between value-based priorities and criteria of operational effectiveness in making national health care decisions.  

This special issue seeks to publish research that helps delineate the complex nature of national health care and offers evidence-based recommendations for its effective management. We are particularly interested in studies that investigate fundamental tensions between economic concerns and cultural values surrounding national health care, and how these tensions can be resolved or managed through strategic choice. Additionally, we encourage submissions that seek to frame the debate in novel and creative ways with the aim of introducing innovations into the design and/or delivery of health care at different levels of operation (e.g., individual, organization, regional, country, and international). Finally, given the important role played by pharmaceutical companies in the health care field, we also welcome contributions that examine topics related to policies and practices concerning the development of new drugs, particularly those that combat rare and neglected diseases.

Authors interested in submitting to the Special Issue should send an abstract (maximum 3 double-spaced pages) to the guest editor at the address below summarizing the key ideas of their paper and how it helps advance fundamental knowledge about national health care and its effective management. EJIM publishes both conceptual and empirical works, with special interest in papers that develop interdisciplinary knowledge by integrating theoretical ideas and research methods from two or more disciplines.

Notes for Intending Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.

All papers are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors, sample copies and other relevant information for submitting papers are available on the Author Guidelines webpage (http://www.inderscience.com/mapper.php?id=31).

Important Dates

Deadline for Abstract Submission: November 1, 2010
Deadline for Abstract Review Notification: December 15, 2010
Deadline for Full Paper Submission: May 1, 2011

Email Addresses
You may email one copy of your submission in the form of an attached MS Word file (details in Author Guidelines) to:

Professor Joseph Cheng
College of Business
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL 61820, USA. 
Email: jlcheng@illinois.edu 

With an email copy to:

EJIM Editorial Team
Email: editors@ejim-global.org

and

IEL Editorial Office
Email: ejim@inderscience.com

Please include in your submission the title of the Special Issue, the title of the Journal and the name of the Guest Editor.