Health policy
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This paper presents an analysis of Ireland's recent experience of overseas nurse recruitment. Ireland began actively recruiting nurses from overseas in 2000 and has recruited almost 10,000 nurses, primarily from India and the Philippines since that time. This paper takes a timely look at the Irish experience to date. ⋯ This enables the authors to quantify and discuss the trends and scale of recent nurse migration to Ireland from outside the European Union (EU). The paper discusses the data essential for national workforce planning and highlights the deficiencies in the Irish data currently available for that purpose. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of Ireland's heavy reliance on overseas nurse recruitment.
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Although trastuzumab is traditionally used in metastatic breast cancer treatment, studies reported on the efficacy and safety of trastuzumab in adjuvant setting for the treatment of early stage breast cancer in HER2+ tumors. We estimated the cost-effectiveness and budget impact of reimbursing trastuzumab in this indication from a payer's perspective. ⋯ The model shows better cost-effectiveness for the 9-week initial treatment (FinHer) compared to no trastuzumab treatment than for the 1-year post-chemotherapy treatment (HERA). Both from a medical and an economic point of view, the 9-week initial treatment regimen with trastuzumab shows promising results and justifies the initiation of a large comparative trial with a 1-year regimen.
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To measure the economic burden of cerebral palsy (CP) in China is to provide information on CP's societal impacts to policy-makers. ⋯ The economic burden of CP in China is substantial for the family of a CP patient, as well as to society. Public provision and financing of necessary preventive and rehabilitative services is urgently needed to mitigate this heavy burden for patients and their families.
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Policy-makers worldwide struggle to balance health with industrial policy objectives in the pharmaceutical sector. Tensions arise over pricing and reimbursement in particular. What health plans view as necessary to maintain equitable access to medicines, industry views as inimical to R&D and innovation. Australia has grappled with this issue for years, even incorporating the goal of "maintaining a responsible and viable medicines industry" into its National Medicines Policy. ⋯ Despite the fact that policy reviews suggest that Australia has achieved balance between health and industrial policy objectives, the country continues to face criticism from industry that its health goals harm innovation and R&D. Recent reforms raise the question whether Australia can sustain the apparent balance.