Like other countries, Australia has had some success in incorporating economic evidence into national healthcare decisions. However, it has been recognised that this coverage does not extend to the local hospital or health region level. An extensive body of research has identified barriers to...

DOI: 10.2165/0019053-200826090-00001

Differences between children and adults have both technical and ethical implications for the design, interpretation and employment of economic analyses of health-related programmes. Even though policy makers increasingly turn to economic analyses to inform decisions about resource allocation,...

Objective: To explore whether the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) takes account of concerns other than just incremental cost effectiveness in commissioning healthcare services. Method: A stated preference binary choice experiment was used to explore the preferences...

Background: As cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs) are increasingly used to inform policy decisions, there is a need for more information on how different cost determination methods affect cost estimates and the degree to which the resulting cost-effectiveness ratios (CERs) may be affected. The...

Currently, much debate still surrounds the discounting of health effects. Most general consensus statements have argued for the same discount rate for health and money; however, this practice has been questioned by several authors. The choice of discount rate can have varying effects on...

Eplerenone (InspraTM) is a selective aldosterone blocker. When added to standard medical therapy, eplerenone significantly improved morbidity and mortality in patients with left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction and clinical evidence of heart failure following acute myocardial infarction...

Heart failure (HF) ranks among the most costly chronic diseases in developed countries. At present these countries devote 1-2% of all healthcare expenditures towards HF. In the US, these costs are estimated at $US30.2 billion for 2007. The burden of HF is greatest among the elderly, with 80% of...

In the past 2 decades, meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become an increasingly prevalent problem in healthcare, both in acute care institutions and in the community. MRSA is associated with worse outcomes and higher costs for care than meticillin sensitive S. aureus (MSSA)....