European Public Health News * President's column * EUPHA office--Active ageing and rejuvenating * Message from the Regional Director--'Scaling up activities for Roma health' * Evaluation and follow-up of the response to pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 by the European Commission * Obituary Barbara Starfield * European Public Health Conference

Abstract

In this last European public health news of 2011, we inform you on the quality of health care in the century of the patient (President's column), EUPHA's active ageing and rejuvenating (office), WHO/EURO's scaling up activities for Roma Health and the EU evaluation of the flu pandemic in 2009. We have also included an obituary for Barbara Stanfield and of course, we are updating you on the 2012 EPH conference (Malta 2012). # President's column {#article-title-2} While no policy-maker or health professional would ever refrain from confirming their support to initiatives aimed to ensure and increase quality in health care, a shared definition of what we actually mean by quality does not exist. Different European countries and, within them, different institutions and interventions confer on this word a variety of meanings, which need to be carefully taken into account as we consider what quality assurance policies are currently adopted. The most widely accepted definition of ‘quality’ is the one given by the Institute of Medicine in the USA in 1990, which reads as follows: ‘the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge’) (IOM, 1990). It is remarkable that this definition mentions both individuals and populations as the addressees of health services, and, above all, that their ‘desires’ are mentioned, which reflect acknowledgement of the central role played by the values and the expectations of those interested and involved in the performance of the health system. While this definition is carefully designed, attempts to implement and pursue the notion of quality in practice require it to be broken down into components more liable to be referred to visible actors and activities—the so-called dimensions of quality. Quality is variably considered to include effectiveness , the ability of a certain care …