Unlocking Ideas
Essays from the Amigo Society

Edited By Francesca Ficai
June 2007
Stockholm University
Distributed By Coronet Books
ISBN: 9780954766399       
127 pages, Illustrated, 5 x 7 3/4"
$29.50 Paper Original

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Europe faces massive challenges in the years ahead. Healthcare systems are struggling to keep up with new, innovative, but expensive advances in medical technologies, while patients are no longer passive recipients, but active consumers of their treatments.

The Amigo Society conferences, held in Brussels, were set up in 2004 to bring together public policy experts, media representatives and members of civil society to debate these and other issues of importance to an enlarged Europe. Held at the Amigo Hotel, a former prison, their aim was to release new ideas and fresh thinking into the Belgian - and wider European - public debate.

Taking concrete examples from all over Europe and North America, this collection examines the broad motivations behind, influences on, and opportunities for future health and welfare policy reform. It also looks to the future - drawing in new fields of policymaking such as biotechnology, tailormade medicines and other technologies expected to drastically alter Europe's healthcare landscape.

And driving it all, the final set of essays examines consumer empowerment as the major factor which will push forward reform of Europe's health and welfare systems. This book assembles the highlights of these debates over the past two years and provides exciting new insights for the reformers of the future.

Health Policy


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