DOI: 10.2165/1312067-200801030-00001

Despite an increased understanding of the pathophysiology of asthma and effective therapies, the prevalence, morbidity and mortality of asthma have risen dramatically over the last 2 decades. Asthma disease state management (ADSM) programmes provide managed care with a viable alternative to...

Background: Patient satisfaction is regarded as an important indicator in assessing the quality of care. Over the past 20 years, in particular, there has been increasing interest in patients' perceptions about the provision of healthcare. Although asthma is a disease that increases the burden on...

As treatment for moderate to severe persistent asthma, inhaled corticosteroid drugs combined with long-acting beta-adrenoceptor agonists are being marketed in a single inhaler device. These combination products have important benefits (e.g. convenience, improved adherence, and improved...

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways. The worldwide prevalence of asthma has increased in recent decades. There is an approximately 20-fold variation (range 1.6% to 36.8%) in the prevalence of childhood asthma throughout the world. The highest prevalence rates are in the UK,...

The London Patient Choice Project (LPCP) was established to offer NHS patients more choice over where and when they receive treatment, and to reduce waiting times. The LPCP offered those patients waiting around 6 months for elective procedures a choice of treatment at an alternative NHS or...

The aim of this study was to investigate alternative methods for aggregating public preferences that may then be used to guide priority-setting decisions in healthcare. This involved asking members of the Australian public to assume the role of a healthcare planner and to allocate an additional...

Introduction: This article reports on a priority-setting exercise involving members of the general public and health professionals. The aim is to compare the healthcare priorities of these two groups, as well as their attitudes towards public involvement in priority setting. Methods: A...

Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) are regularly used in health economics to elicit preferences for healthcare products and programmes. There is growing recognition that DCEs can provide more than information on preferences and, in particular, they have the potential to contribute more directly...

Valuing the health of children for cost-utility or cost-benefit analysis poses a number of additional challenges when compared with valuing adult health. Some of these challenges relate to the inability of young children to value changes in health directly and the potential biases associated...