AIMS The first aim of this study was to develop a model that predicts health and economic consequences of smoking cessation in Sweden, striving to follow the methodological recommendations to reflect the societal perspective and to use the health measure quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). The second aim was to apply the model estimates to a smoking cessation intervention. METHODS A Markov c...

In this paper, we address a cooperative game application to supply chain management. Specifically, we study a distribution system where a set of retailers may order for a single product from a unique supplier to satisfy a deterministic and constant rate demand of final customers. Each retailer, when ordering for a quantity of product, has to pay a fixed ordering cost and a transportation cost. ...

This review examines the effect of unanticipated admission, return hospital visits and readmission on the economics of ambulatory surgery. The overall rate of unanticipated admission was approximately 1% and the overall rate of readmission to hospital was approximately 1%. Ambulatory surgery allows total cost savings of 20-50% when compared with inpatient surgery. If 98% of ambulatory surgery p...

BACKROUND The diagnosis of epidermoid cyst is seldom in doubt, and associated malignancy extremely rare, yet it is commonplace for the lesion to be sent to the pathology laboratory for analysis. The aim of this study was to evaluate our current practice with regards to diagnostic accuracy among clinicians, and assess risk of not routinely sending suspected epidermoid cysts for histological exam...

BACKGROUND The impact on instrument quality and cost of the practice of reusing ERCP accessories has not been fully addressed. METHODS Twenty-five new papillotomes and 15 new retrieval baskets were labeled and evaluated over time by staff blinded to the number of prior uses. Instruments were scored as to their function for the designated task. The cost of this practice was calculated from the...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To evaluate the cost effectiveness and equity of a community based cardiovascular disease prevention programme. DESIGN A prospective cross sectional design. SETTING A community based intervention to reduce cardiovascular disease in the district of Norsjö (n = 5500), Sweden. The intervention was aimed at both the general population and at individuals thought to be at special ...