Empirical research shows that patients with severe illnesses prefer the physician to dominate decision processes and provide the information needed. However, in rare diseases, due to the low prevalence and the lack of expertise, the patient is forced to become knowledgeable about his own disease...

The BURQOL-RD project is intended to develop a disease based model capable of quantifying the socio-economic burden and health-related quality of life for patients with rare diseases (RDs) and their caregivers in Europe. We described the methodology used to select a set of 10 RDs to be...

This article explores how an Eastern European country could deal with orphan drugs access, combining EU policies with its own national settings. The cross-sectional observational study takes the total number of orphan drugs (61) available on EU level by March 2011, and then consecutively filters...

Understanding doctors' preferences for prioritizing treatment of rare diseases can provide an important context for policy makers who must decide whether to exempt rare disease treatments, which are often quite expensive, from standard cost-effectiveness criteria. We surveyed a random sample of...

Purpose – The Orphan Drug Act has provided the pharmaceutical industry with incentives to research and develop drugs for orphan diseases: rare diseases with little profit potential. It is considered very successful legislation by legal scholars, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and...

Purpose – This article aims to provide a description of principal aspects of policy and practice associated with orphan drugs and treatments of rare diseases, and give perspectives for 2011 on new and emerging approaches for addressing patient access. Design/methodology/approach –...

Many hospitals have been built for people in silver age and these hospitals want to set various remote health care systems for the old people who are living in a place far from these hospitals. The systems processes are connected with each other and with networks as well. These systems handle...

Local government units (LGU) are nowadays facing the very difficult and complicated task of making reasonable decisions regarding the transforming of SPZOZs into capital companies. First, it seems necessary to carry out a simulation of costs and advantages of the assumed models and solutions...

A regional disparity is becoming increasingly important growth constraint. Policy makers need quantitative knowledge to design effective and targeted policies. In this paper, the regional efficiency of healthcare facilities in Slovakia is measured (2008-2015) using data envelopment analysis...

Although cancer survival in general has improved in Australia over the past 30 years, Indigenous Australians, socioeconomically disadvantaged persons, and people living in remote areas still experience poorer health outcomes. This paper aims to describe the development of CancerCostMod, and to...