The lack of a uniform costing methodology is often considered a weakness of economic evaluations that hinders the interpretation and comparison of studies. Standardisation is therefore an important topic within the methodology of economic evaluations and in national guidelines that formulate the...

Hypertension is an important modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Despite compelling evidence for the benefits of various treatment strategies and an extensive program of public and professional education, management of hypertension remains suboptimal with marked interphysician...

Background: Swedish formulary committees are expected to influence prescribing practice by establishing and issuing drug lists and clinical practice guidelines, particularly now that financial responsibility for prescription drugs has been transferred from the national to the county council...

Influenza remains a significant cause of worldwide morbidity and mortality. With the availability of new effective antivirals for the treatment of influenza, early diagnosis of the disease will become increasingly important for effective disease management. Although investigators are generally...

Background: It is mandatory for drug manufacturers requesting formulary inclusion under the British Columbia (BC) provincial drug plan to submit a pharmacoeconomic analysis according to published guidelines. These submissions are reviewed by the Pharmacoeconomic Initiative (PI) of BC. Objective:...

Most breast and ovarian cancers occur sporadically, but an estimated 5 to 10% of cases occur in women with hereditary predisposition to these cancers. Two genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, have been identified, which, when altered, are thought to be responsible for most cases of hereditary breast and...

Japanese clinical trials have been drastically changing in response to the implementation of the International Conference on Harmonisation - Good Clinical Practice (ICH-GCP) guideline in 1997. The most important aim of the new guideline is to standardise the quality of clinical trials in the US,...

In the US, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 2 men will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives. More than 1.2 million individuals are diagnosed with cancer each year while it is estimated that 8.2 million Americans, alive today, have a history of cancer. Cancer diagnosis and treatment...

The current divisions in managing prescribing between primary and secondary care in the UK arise from separate budgetary arrangements. These divisions are neither sensible, organisationally efficient nor cost effective. Transition of patients across the interface of primary and secondary care...

Glaucoma is a leading cause of vision loss and blindness worldwide, especially among the elderly. While there are many forms of glaucoma, there are 2 major groups: `open-angle' (OAG) and `angle closure'. The latter is now successfully treated by laser iridotomy. The former, OAG, is a chronic...