Healthcare Systems for Persons with Spinal Cord Injury

Through her PhD research Olena aims to identify characteristics of a healthcare system that would be purposive for persons with spinal cord injury (SCI). SCI is a rare, medically complex and costly health condition, which is associated with high risk of developing life-threatening secondary conditions. Hence, these patients with high healthcare needs frequently utilize numerous clinical settings for follow-up treatment of acute secondary conditions. Their service utilization and patient experience are a comprehensive indication of how well the health system is functioning.
In academic, medical and political terms there is yet a lot to learn about how to organize healthcare delivery corresponding to the needs of persons with SCI. Resolving such complex question would require multispectral, multidisciplinary and international collaboration. Thus, in her analysis Olena is comparing 22 countries with over 12 500 participants by using diverse statistical analysis methods (cluster analysis, classification and regression tree analysis, linear and logistic regressions). She is exploring the healthcare system's influence on access to services and patient's experience (measured through Patient Reported Experience Measures (PREMs)). These studies are based on data from International Spinal Cord Injury Community Survey (InSCI) — first survey about the experience of persons with SCI living in the community, conducted across all six WHO regions. Moreover, Olena will build a foundation for launching InSCI in Ukraine.

Keywords: health systems, health services, access, patient experience, PREMs, primary care, high healthcare needs, spinal cord injury, country comparison

Short Biography

Olena Bychkovska is a PhD student in Health Sciences at the University of Lucerne and the Swiss Paraplegic Research. Olena holds a Master's degree in Management and Administration (in Public Health) from the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (Kyiv, Ukraine) and a MSc degree in Leadership and Organizational Psychology from the BI Norwegian Business School (Oslo, Norway). She was previously engaged in various international and public sector activities in Ukraine, Norway, and Sweden. Olena strongly believes in the necessity of decision making and policy development to be strictly evidence-based. Therefore, she strives to be involved in multidisciplinary research on how to build more inclusive and effective healthcare systems.

Olena Bychkovska
Swiss Paraplegic Research AG
University of Lucerne

olena.bychkovska@paraplegie.ch

Supervisor: Armin Gemperli