Background:Background: The high number of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has facilitated greater research, resulting in the development of innovative medical devices. So far, results from economic evaluations that compared drug-eluting stents (DES) and bare-metal stents (BMS)...

Background:Background: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is considered an orphan disease. Prostacyclins are the keystone for PAH treatment. Choosing between the three available prostacyclin therapies could be complicated because there are no comparison studies, so the final decision must be...

Background:Background: In spite of the important progress made in the abortive treatment of acute migraine episodes since the introduction of triptans, reduction of pain and associated symptoms is in many cases still not as effective nor as fast as would be desirable. Recent research pays more...

In past decades, studies focusing on new chemotherapeutic agents for patients with inoperable non-small-cell lung cancer have reported only modest gains in survival. These health gains are achieved at considerable cost, but economic evidence is lacking on superiority of one agent in terms of...

The design of decision-analytic models for cost-effectiveness analysis has been the subject of discussion. The current work addresses this issue by noting that, when time is to be explicitly modelled, we need to represent phenomena occurring in continuous time. Models evaluated in continuous...

Objectives:Objectives: This report reviews the cost effectiveness of different therapeutic interventions used in the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Abstract: Methods:Methods: We performed a systematic search of the databases MEDLINE via PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library and used...

Screening programs for sickle cell disease, when effective, can reduce morbidity and mortality as a direct consequence of patient education and optimized clinical management. However, informed patient or parental consent is necessary prior to the screening process as a person's sickle status is...

Objective: To investigate the effect of an asthma care support program for patients under the age of 18 years. Study design: A 1 Patient groups: 318 asthma care support program participants and 318 matched non-participants. Main outcome measures: The rates of medical service utilization...

Introduction: In adults with previously untreated chronic hepatitis C (CHC), the combination of peginterferon alpha-2a plus ribavirin produces a higher rate of sustained virological response (SVR) than interferon alpha-2b plus ribavirin, but it is still unproven whether this increase is cost...

The fields of pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics have become important practical tools to progress goals in medical and pharmaceutical research and development. As more screening tests are being developed, with some already used in clinical practice, consideration of cost-effectiveness...