Efficiency and productivity of cancer care in Europe

This study measures the efficiency and productivity of breast and lung cancer health care provision in Europe in order to inform related policy discussions. The included countries' relative performance is measured against a best practice production frontier computed using distance functions where inputs are used to produce an output. The distance function is well suited to identify best practice in a complex production process such as cancer care with rapid change in technologies. Price data is not needed which is an advantage when evaluating the European health care sector where market prices often are non-existent. Input variables such as number of radiation units, number of oncologists, and oncology pharmaceuticals are used to produce survival and quality of life. Publicly available data between 2005 and 2015 from Eurostat, OECD, WHO, and published sources are used to compute country specific efficiency and productivity results. The data reveal extensive differences in inputs and outputs and this is reflected in the performance measures. Efficient and inefficient countries occur among both wealthy and less affluent countries and it can be seen that significantly higher input use typically yields only a small increase in the outputs, both across countries and over time.