Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
-
The objective was to characterize geriatric patients' use of online health information (OHI) relative to younger adults and assess their comfort ith OHI compared to health information (HI) from their physician. ⋯ Although many older patients used OHI, they were less likely than younger adults to use the Internet immediately prior to an ED visit. Despite often using OHI, patients of all age groups found healthcare information from their doctor easier to understand and more trustworthy than information from the Internet. As health systems work to efficiently provide information to patients, addressing these perceived deficiencies may be necessary to build effective OHI programs.
-
Review Case Reports
Cost-effectiveness analysis appraisal and application: an emergency medicine perspective.
Cost-effectiveness is an important goal for emergency care delivery. The many diagnostic, treatment, and disposition decisions made in the emergency department (ED) have a significant impact upon healthcare resource utilization. Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) is an analytic tool to optimize these resource allocation decisions through the systematic comparison of costs and effects of alternative healthcare decisions. ⋯ The discussion also includes an overview of the limitations inherent in applying CEA results to clinical practice to include the lack of incorporation of noncost considerations in CEA (e.g., ethics). After reading this article, emergency medicine leaders and researchers will have an enhanced understanding of the basics of CEA critical appraisal and application. The paper concludes with an overview of economic evaluation resources for readers interested in conducting ED-based economic evaluation studies.