Objectives: To estimate the long-term impact of treatment with perindopril on costs and health effects in patients with stable coronary artery disease in Poland. Methods: The cost-effectiveness analysis was based on data from a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. A decision-tree...

Of the 1 million patients who undergo coronary intervention in the US annually, 10-45% develop stent restenosis. Designed to inhibit tissue growth following coronary intervention, the drug-eluting stent (DES) is a breakthrough technology that has been shown to reduce restenosis by 80%,...

It is well recognized that there is a treatment gap in the management of risk factors in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) - a gap between what is known from published evidence and what is actually practiced. Strategies to address the treatment gap have usually been aimed at the...

Telehealth has emerged as a promising approach for optimizing outcomes in chronic heart failure (CHF). Telehealth is broadly defined as the use of audio, video, and other telecommunications and electronic information technologies to offer health services, transfer various types of information,...

A number of large randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have documented the effectiveness of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor (`statin') therapy for both primary and secondary prevention of coronary heart disease. Current international guidelines, therefore, recommend the use of statin therapy in...

Background: One particularly difficult challenge in evaluating disease management (DM) programs is defining the scope of economic outcomes to include in the evaluation. Measuring `all-cause utilization' or `total costs' assumes that a DM intervention impacts the entire spectrum of services...

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...

Background: Restless legs syndrome (RLS) affects approximately 10-15% of the general population and has deleterious effects on sleep and subsequent daytime performance. The disorder may also give rise to long-term complications such as psychological distress and diminished quality of life. The...

Schizophrenia is a disabling, chronic psychiatric disorder that poses numerous challenges in its management and consequences. It extols a significant cost to the patient in terms of personal suffering, on the caregiver as a result of the shift of burden of care from hospital to families, and on...

Background:Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease that often results in joint pain, inflammation and bone erosions. Perhaps the most notable change in RA treatment during the last decade is the advent of biologics, and, in particular, anti-tumour necrosis factor...