Pharmaceutical expenditure is rising more rapidly than the general inflation rate in most advanced countries. One strategy that has been introduced to control pharmaceutical costs is reference-based pricing (RBP). Its potential is restricted to those specific segments of the drug market where...

Disease management has been marketed by healthcare industry providers as a way of improving resource allocation in healthcare and containing costs. However, to achieve improved efficiency in healthcare requires the guidelines and protocols in the disease management process to be based on sound...

The American healthcare market is currently estimated at more than $US900 billion with double digit rising costs per year. Psychotropic agent costs have more than kept pace with market increases. Medication acquisition costs are an obvious focus for limiting costs in various care systems....

Background:Background: When guidelines for health economic evaluations prescribe that a societal perspective should be adopted, productivity costs should be included. However, previous research suggests that, in practice, productivity costs are often neglected. This may considerably bias the...

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...

Background:Background: Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common life-shortening genetic disorder among Whites worldwide. Because many of these patients experience chronic endobronchial colonization and have to take antibiotics and be treated as inpatients, societal costs of CF may be high. As the...

Background:Background: National EQ-5D value sets are developed because preferences for health may vary in different populations. UK values are lower than US values for most of the 243 possible EQ-5D health states. Although similar protocols were used for data collection, analytic choices...

Background: Research has consistently demonstrated a relationship between depression and increased levels of health service use over the short term. However, much less is known about how this relationship is influenced by the success, or otherwise, of depression management strategies, and the...

Background: Denosumab has recently been shown to be well tolerated, to increase bone mineral density (BMD) and to significantly reduce the risk of hip, vertebral and non-vertebral fractures in the FREEDOM (Fracture REduction Evaluation of Denosumab in Osteoporosis every 6 Months) trial. It is...