“…Five specific diseases (acute myocardial infarction (AMI), breast cancer, hip fracture, stroke and infants born with very low birth weight (VLBW) and/or very low gestational age (VLGA) (further referred to as VLBW/VLGA infants) were selected to serve as case studies and for which countrywide patient data were collected in the participating countries (Finland, Hungary, Italy, 1 the Netherlands, Norway, Scotland and Sweden) Hagen et al, 2015aHagen et al, , 2015bMalmivaara et al, 2015;Medin et al, 2015;Numerato et al, 2015;Peltola et al, 2015;Smith et al, 2015). In addition, one study was carried out with the hospital as unit of analysis and including all diseases treated in the hospital (Kittelsen et al, 2015). For this analysis, hospital patient data from the Nordic countries only were used.…”