Economic evaluations are increasingly being conducted alongside clinical trials of health interventions, with resource consequences being estimated from stochastic data. It is, therefore, important that economic evaluation results, like the clinical results, reflect the underlying variance within the sample data. A statistical methodology, known as bootstrapping, has recently been put forward a...

OBJECTIVE To determine the cost effectiveness of two view mammography at incident screens. DESIGN Incremental cost effectiveness analyses recognising differences in current reading policy, based on effectiveness data from an observational study. SETTING Breast screening programmes in England and Wales. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Health service costs, cancers detected, incremental cost effectiv...

We describe the "evaluability bias": the tendency to weight the importance of an attribute in proportion to its ease of evaluation. We propose that the evaluability bias influences decision making in the context of charitable giving: people tend to have a strong preference for charities with low overhead ratios (lower administrative expenses) but not for charities with high cost-effectiveness (...

OBJECTIVES A recent study showed that estimates of cost-effectiveness submitted to National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) by manufacturers had significantly lower incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) than those submitted by university-based Assessment Groups. This study extends that analysis. METHODS Data were abstracted from relevant NICE documentation for thir...

In this study, the cost-effectiveness of three indicated anxiety prevention strategies was examined from a societal perspective. Children (aged 8-12) were recruited via primary schools, selecting children scoring as high-anxious on an anxiety screening questionnaire. Participating children and their parents were randomized to a child--a parent-focused, or non-intervention group. All groups comp...

The use of drugs during pregnancy and breast-feeding is a long-lasting debate among scientists. Many of them support the view that the risks are minimal, since the anomalies in fetuses due to chemical compounds are approximately 1%, while others argue that the effects of drug delivery in this special period of life has largely unknown delayed consequences. In clinical practice the dilemma is to...

A low-cost and portable vector network analyzer (VNA) which covered operating frequency between 1MHz to 3GHz is used for vector reflection coefficient and standing wave ratio (swr) of the various microstrip antennas. This paper presents measurements of various ultra wideband (uwb) microstrip antennas for applications in biomedical field. Selection of antenna is an important key for detection of...

Impact stress (IS) has been regarded as the main loading factor in voice production. To quantify the cost of voice production, an output-cost ratio (OCR) was proposed, which concerns acoustic output (pressure P) in relation to IS: OCR = 20 log P(sup)/P(0) - 20 log IS/IS(0) [1,2]. IS is difficult to measure directly in humans. However, it has been found to correlate with closed quotient (CQ, clo...

1. Costs and benefits of reproduction are central to life-history theory, and the outcome of reproductive trade-offs may depend greatly on the ecological conditions in which they are estimated. In this study, we propose that costs and benefits of reproduction are modulated by social effects, and consequently that selection on reproductive rates depends on the social environment. 2. We tested th...

BACKGROUND In Russia, the incidence of melanoma is increasing steadily. The approved standard of specialized medical care for melanoma of the skin defined the range of drugs, recommended for the provision of quality health care. However, it appears that the most effective innovative and safe medicines are at the same time the most expensive drugs. The most important is the assessment of drug us...