International journal of technology assessment in health care
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The aim of this study was to demonstrate the best way of identifying all relevant published health economic evaluation studies, which have increased in number rapidly in the past few decades. Nevertheless, health technology assessment projects are often faced with a scarcity of relevant studies. ⋯ A search in NHS EED, by means of the Cochrane Library or the Center for Reviews and Dissimination, along with a supplementary search in PubMed, is generally an appropriate, cost-effective strategy. However, because "cost-effectiveness" is not consistently indexed with Medical Subject Heading terms in PubMed, all economic search terms need to be used to fully identify the relevant references.
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To calculate the costs of blood collection, testing, storage, and transfusion in Greece. ⋯ Blood has a significant cost to the health system. Policy makers and practitioners should encourage its rational use, build on current policies to further improve collection and distribution, encourage further volunteer donorship in Greece, and also consider alternatives to blood where the possibility exists.
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Int J Technol Assess Health Care · Jan 2005
Spinal cord stimulation for failed back surgery syndrome: a decision-analytic model and cost-effectiveness analysis.
The aim of this study was to develop a decision-analytic model to assess the cost-effectiveness of spinal cord stimulation (SCS), relative to nonsurgical conventional medical management (CMM), for patients with failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS). ⋯ SCS was found to be both more effective and less costly than CMM, over the lifetime of a patient. In the short-term, although SCS is potentially cost-effective, the model results are highly sensitive to the choice of input parameters. Further empirical data are required to improve the precision in the estimation of short-term cost-effectiveness.
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Int J Technol Assess Health Care · Jan 2005
Assessing quality of end-of-life hospital care in a southern European regional health service.
During the final period of life, patients with cancer in the Basque Country are given treatment in different types of hospital care. This study compared the quality of care according to the type of care in one of the autonomous communities in Spain. ⋯ End-of-life in cancer patients was diagnosed too late. The quality of care in palliative care units and by home hospitalization service was better than that in conventional hospitalization. Nevertheless, there were areas for improvement in the three modalities of care.
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Int J Technol Assess Health Care · Jan 2005
Decisions to adopt new technologies at the hospital level: insights from Israeli medical centers.
New medical technologies have been identified as the leading cause of increasing health-care expenditures. Adoption of a new technology is one of the most important decisions in medical centers. The objectives of this study were to map and describe the function of hospital decision-makers within the area of new technology assessment and adoption, and to examine relevant considerations, sources of information, and decision-making processes in the adoption of a new technology. ⋯ To improve the adoption decisions, hospitals must develop criteria upon which the decision-making will be based.