Evidence produced by multinational trial-based cost-effectiveness studies is often used to inform decisions concerning the adoption of new healthcare technologies. A key issue relating to the use of this type of evidence is the extent to which trial-wide economic results are applicable to every...

Background: In some women, uterine fibroids are associated with severe, disabling symptoms. There is a lack of high-quality evidence supporting the effectiveness of most interventions for symptomatic uterine fibroids. In part, this is due to the lack of available disease-specific instruments...

Background:Background: There are many reasons why an investigator may choose to share results with survey respondents; however, the practice is not universal. Moreover, while there is some evidence that the practice increases response rates, it is of limited generalizability. Abstract:...

The recent rush of enthusiasm for public investment in comparative effectiveness research (CER) in the US has focussed attention on these public investments. However, little attention has been given to how changing public investment in CER may affect private manufacturers' incentives for CER,...

The debate surrounding whether the findings of efficacy studies are applicable to real-world treatment situations is ongoing. The issue of lack of applicability due to a lack of clinical heterogeneity could be addressed by employing less restrictive inclusion criteria. Given that health economic...

Sample size and power for cost-effectiveness analysis depend on assumptions about the difference in cost and effect, the standard deviations of cost and effect, the correlation of the difference in cost and effect, the α and β errors and maximum willingness to pay (W). The first seven of these...

This article deals with the question of how to handle costs to enhance medication adherence in trial-based pharmacoeconomic analyses. It argues that resources to improve patient adherence have a clearly distinguishable impact on costs and utility and thus are relatively easy to exclude when...

Comparative effectiveness research (CER) is the generation and synthesis of evidence that compares the benefits and harms of alternative methods to prevent, diagnose, treat and monitor a clinical condition, or to improve the delivery of care. The purpose of this article is to compare - within...

Methods for determining sample size requirements for cost-effectiveness studies are reviewed and illustrated. Traditional methods based on tests of hypothesis and power arguments are given for the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio and incremental net benefit (INB). In addition, a full...