With increasing chronic disease and disability burden as a result of the aging of populations worldwide, cost estimates of disease and disability are important in determining: 1. the most cost-effective methods in delivering healthcare in order to maximise resources; and 2. health policies and...

Background: Heart failure (HF) is as common in Hispanic as it is in non-Hispanic populations. However, there do not appear to be any published reports of HF disease management programs which include Hispanic populations. Objective: To test the effectiveness of a standardized telephonic disease...

The impact of migraine is substantial for both the individual who suffers from it and society in general in terms of lost work hours, medication costs and healthcare usage. Many different forms of treatment are available for migraine, including biobehavioural approaches such as relaxation...

Objective: The objective of the study was to develop a procedure to distribute health resources among treatments for the primary prevention of coronary heart disease based on efficiency and equity. Design and Setting: Two procedures to manage pharmaceutical resources for the primary prevention...

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a common cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide and places a large burden on medical and economic resources, particularly if hospitalization is required. Indeed, it has been estimated that annual costs of inpatient treatment of patients with CAP...

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy affecting women and imposes a substantial economic burden on society. Estrogen is thought to play a major role in both the initiation and promotion of hormone dependent breast cancer, and a number of well recognized risk factors for breast cancer...

Background: The use of utility values in cost-effectiveness analysis is an accepted method for defining outcomes. Increasingly, cost-effectiveness analyses examine outcomes that involve two or more health states. There is no accepted method of mathematically combining single health state utility...

Episodes of care provide a clinically meaningful unit of analysis for measuring both the cost and quality of patient care. Many health plans are currently using episode of care grouping software in cost-focused provider profiling applications. These profiles compare the cost for one provider to...

Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has dramatically altered the natural history of HIV disease. Studies demonstrate that =95% adherence is necessary to garner the full benefits of HAART. However, appropriate adherence to treatment is difficult and challenging. This paper provides an...

A number of first-line chemotherapy options for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are advocated in treatment guidelines and/or by various clinical investigators. Platinum-based chemotherapy has clearly demonstrated efficacy in patients with advanced NSCLC and is generally...