Age related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in the United Kingdom and the rest of the western world. It occurs in 15% to 30% of individuals over 75 years of age. About 15% of these patients develop a more aggressive wet form of the disease that causes severe loss of...

Integrated care is often perceived as a solution for some of the major challenges faced by health and social care systems. In these systems, 20% of the population accounts for 80% of the expenditure on care [1]. These ‘high users’ are typically people with one or more long-term...

This handbook is intended to inform policy makers at various levels of decision making in health care about the technique of economic appraisal and to help them appreciate the potential roles of economic appraisal in health policy. In this context “policy makers” may be broadly defined:...

The Department of Health has recently published a register of economic evaluations of health care treatments and programmes. The objective of the register is to assist health care decision makers in assessing the value for money from alternative ways of allocation scarce resources. If the...

Arguments are being made more frequently to incorporate economic evaluations and quality of life assessments into clinical trials. Using two randomised, multicentre trials of radiotherapy for cancer as an example, this paper outlines: (1) the importance of including such assessments; (2) the...

Approximately 17.5% of all pregnancies in England are induced. Induction of labour may be required for several reasons. These include hypertension, intra-uterine growth retardation, diabetes, poor weight profile of the mother and prolonged pregnancy. The two principle methods used to induce...