This article reviews the general issues in valuing health states for use in cost-effectiveness analysis and the specific issues considered by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in its recent review of the methods of technology appraisal. The general issues are how...

This paper describes and compares two governmental policies that aim to decrease nutrient losses from farming to ground and surface waters in the Netherlands. The mineral bookkeeping system (MINAS) is the first policy. It is applied in the Netherlands since 1998 and it is based on a farm gate...

Cultural competency has become a fashionable term for clinicians and researchers. Yet no one can defi ne this term precisely enough to operationalize it in clinical training and best practices. It is clear that culture does matter in the clinic. Cultural factors are crucial to diagnosis,...

This paper has four purposes. First, to establish the policy background leading to a special financial reporting standard for small firms (FRSSE), aimed at reducing compliance costs. An indirect policy implication of this was that small firms would be stimulated, for example, in terms of...

The authors bring together 40 randomized and non-randomized evaluations of education programs to compare cost-effectiveness, seeking to facilitate prioritization of different candidate interventions by policymakers. They examine cost-effectiveness across three outcomes (enrollment, attendance,...

Alzheimer Data on the effectiveness of these drugs from information beyond the short-term clinical trials (e.g. long-term clinical trials and non-trial data) are now emerging. In most cases, the results indicate that, at least for some patients, continued treatment with cholinesterase inhibitors...

Schizophrenia is a chronic disease that typically manifests during adolescence and early adulthood. Treatment of this disease consumes a significant proportion of the healthcare budget (billions of dollars in the US). Primary management options for schizophrenia include both pharmacologic and...

Patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have poor survival prospects, as most have advanced disease at diagnosis. Chemotherapy can be used to treat these patients if their performance status is good, although there are geographical differences in chemotherapy use. Combination...

Elevated cholesterol levels are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. Treatment strategies promoting the associated health benefits from a reduction in elevated cholesterol levels have been outlined in guidelines published by the National Cholesterol Education Program....

Background: Missing data are potentially an extensive problem in cost-effectiveness analyses conducted alongside randomised clinical trials, where prospective collection of both resource use and health outcome information is required. There are several possible reasons for the presence of...