Healthcare financing is a priority on international agenda and a challenge for all countries, no matter what their development level. Inefficiencies are present in all healthcare systems to a smaller or a larger extent. The 2010 World Health Report Health systems financing: the path to universal...

This Article proposes a solution to the growth of health care costs, focusing on the sector of expensive, and often unproven, treatments. Political, legal, and market limits prevent insurers or physicians from rationing care or putting downward pressure on prices. Since the insurer bears the...

In people with diabetes, a foot infection often leads to amputation. Plain film x-ray is the traditional method in assessing foot bone infections but magnetic resonance is more sensitive and specific. A comparison is performed here between radiography and radiography plus magnetic resonance in...

Contrast media induced nephropathy is a common cause of kidney failure in hospitalized patients. It has been suggested that high-osmolality contrast media caused less nephropathies than low-osmolality ones. The cost-effectiveness of High- (Iodixanol) and Low-osmolality (Iohexol, Iopamidol and...

President Barack Obama, former U.S. Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, and others propose a new government agency that would evaluate the relative effectiveness of medical treatments. The need for "comparative-effectiveness research" is great. Evidence suggests Americans spend $700 billion...

The political solution to our health crisis appears to be an expanded health coverage program, perhaps universal and mandatory. Increased coverage is expected to result in affordable (and available) care, which will translate into earlier diagnoses and more effective treatment, which in turn...

This article offers a proposal for the regulation of stem cell products by the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) that corresponds to a specialized product liability scheme. It shows how product liability and administrative law can be successfully integrated to create a comprehensive legal...

Cost-effectiveness of plasmapheresis prior to open thymectomy vs. open thymectomy alone is assessed by means of a Markov model. The perspective is that of the payer, including all direct costs. Data on effectiveness and complication risks were obtained from the literature. Deterministic and...

Functions and principles of procurement are made for systemic approach to make right item, at right time, at right place, in right quantity and in reasonable cost. Feasibility and dedication make the system viable. It is a matter of concern that despite of available funds, the materials are not...

Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh State of India -- a 886-bedded, tertiary care hospital -- is implementing the methods of waste utilization/recycling, for wealth generation from solid waste and also containing the cost of treatment for needy...