Expert review of pharmacoeconomics & outcomes research
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Expert Rev Pharmacoecon Outcomes Res · Apr 2014
ReviewMethodological guidance documents for evaluation of ethical considerations in health technology assessment: a systematic review.
Despite the advances made in the development of ethical frameworks for health technology assessment (HTA), there is no clear agreement on the scope and details of a practical approach to address ethical aspects in HTA. This systematic review aimed to identify existing guidance documents for incorporation of ethics in HTA to provide an overview of their methodological features. ⋯ They frequently promoted using analytical methods that combined normative reflection with participatory approaches. The choice of a method for collection and analysis of ethical data seems to depend on the context in which technology is being assessed, the purpose of analysis, and availability of required resources.
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Approximately 18% of US gross domestic product is spent on healthcare and 5% of that is for cancer care. With rapidly increasing oncologic drug prices, growth in cancer spending will likely far outpace overall healthcare spending growth. Developing cost-saving strategies is imperative, but economizing must not compromise patients' well-being. ⋯ At the current pace, the US payers cannot continue to afford increasing costs for cancer treatments. Research on maximizing patient outcomes for reasonable costs is essential. More analyses of quality of life assessment and cost-effectiveness can support future decisions about cancer care.
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Expert Rev Pharmacoecon Outcomes Res · Dec 2013
ReviewEconomic implications of potential drug-drug interactions in chronic pain patients.
Chronic pain patients may be subject to polypharmacy because of long-term pharmacological pain treatment and additional comorbidities. Many chronic pain patients expose themselves to potential drug-drug interactions (DDIs) and these interactions can have unintended and severe consequences. ⋯ The studies evaluated drug-drug exposures with the potential to cause DDIs specifically occurring through the CYP450 enzyme system. The studies reported that drug-drug exposures are prevalent, costly and can occur in any age group and that physicians should consider ways to limit their patients' exposure to potential DDIs.
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Expert Rev Pharmacoecon Outcomes Res · Oct 2013
CommentOutpatient palliative care effectiveness: both patients and caregivers can gain.
Outpatient palliative care services are increasing in their effectiveness worldwide, because they can better focus on both patients' and caregivers' needs at all stages of the disease requiring this type of interventions. This was demonstrated before by various studies that,however, were performed mostly on patients with malignancies and thatyielded encouraging results about the severity of the symptoms and about the burden of care in the caregivers. In this analysis performed on a mixture of patients with malignant and nonmalignant diseases, Groh et al. demonstrate that the outpatient team intervention was able to reduce the severity of symptoms such as pain or digestive symptoms and were able to minimize the burden of care of the primary caregivers.