AlRuthia Yazed, Aldallal Sara, Al-Abdulkarim Hana A, Al-Jedai Ahmed, Almudaiheem Hajer, Hamad Anas, Elmusharaf Khalifa, Saadi Mouza, Al Awar Hamda, Al Sabbah Haleama, Alghnam Suliman, Al Ghamdi Mohamed, Monshi Sarah S, AlAgil Nada, Al Khalifa Mohamed Ebrahim, Abdulkarim Qasim, Abdulkarim Sawsan, Jawad Huda, Al-Sabahi Sultana, Al Kindi Asiya, Wani Said, Alibrahim Abdullah
Pharmacoeconomics Research Unit, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Front Public Health. 2025 Mar 25;13:1510401. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1510401. eCollection 2025.
Following the discovery of oil, citizens of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC), which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, have enjoyed the benefits of universal healthcare. However, as the population and healthcare demands in the GCC continue to grow, financing these healthcare systems without adequately considering the value of reimbursed health technologies and the effectiveness of various policies has become increasingly challenging. While numerous narrative reviews and government reports have discussed the healthcare systems in these nations, they have not sufficiently addressed the approval processes, economic evaluations, and reimbursement mechanisms for health technologies. In response to this gap, experts in health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) from the Gulf Health Economics Association - recognized as key opinion leaders in public health and academia across the six GCC countries - conducted a focus group discussion. This focus group meeting, which was recorded and transcribed verbatim to be later thematically analyzed, aimed to characterize the current state of healthcare systems within the GCC, identify challenges in adopting and implementing health economic evaluations to inform policymakers and propose recommendations to expedite the integration of HEOR in the assessment of various health policies and technologies within their respective countries. The convened experts also underscored the importance of collaboration among GCC member states to enhance the adoption of robust health technology evaluations and improve patient access to cost-effective treatments.
在发现石油之后，海湾阿拉伯国家合作委员会（GCC，包括巴林、科威特、卡塔尔、阿曼、阿拉伯联合酋长国和沙特阿拉伯）的公民享受到了全民医疗保健的福利。然而，随着海湾合作委员会地区的人口和医疗保健需求持续增长，在没有充分考虑报销的医疗技术价值和各项政策有效性的情况下为这些医疗保健系统融资变得越来越具有挑战性。虽然众多叙述性综述和政府报告讨论了这些国家的医疗保健系统，但它们尚未充分涉及医疗技术的审批流程、经济评估和报销机制。针对这一差距，海湾健康经济协会的健康经济学与结果研究（HEOR）专家——被公认为海湾合作委员会六国公共卫生和学术界的关键意见领袖——进行了一次焦点小组讨论。这次焦点小组会议进行了录音并逐字转录以便随后进行主题分析，其目的是描述海湾合作委员会内部医疗保健系统的现状，确定在采用和实施健康经济评估以告知政策制定者方面存在的挑战，并提出建议以加快在各自国家将健康经济学与结果研究纳入各种卫生政策和技术评估的进程。与会专家还强调了海湾合作委员会成员国之间开展合作以加强采用有力的医疗技术评估并改善患者获得性价比高的治疗的机会的重要性。
