background: the healthcare and socio-economic burden resulting from influenza a (h1n1) pdm09 in spain was considerable. our aim was to estimate and compare the management (resource utilization) and economic healthcare impact in an at-risk group of unvaccinated pregnant women with an unvaccinated group of non-pregnant woman of childbearing age (15-44 yr old). methods: we addressed this question ...

Over the past decades, scientific medicine has realized tremendous advances. Yet, it is felt that the quality, costs, and equity of medicine and public health have not improved correspondingly and, both inside and outside the USA, may even have changed for the worse. An initiative for improving this situation is value-based healthcare, in which value is defined as health outcomes relative to th...

UNLABELLED To reduce the risk of transmission of microorganisms standard precautions are taken for all patients expected to be exposed to blood, body fluids, or have contacts with mucous membranes and non-intact skin. These preventive measures are by far the best way to protect healthcare workers from adverse infections. AIM To analyze occupational risk exposure of healthcare workers occurrin...

the paper published in the january 2015 issue of this journal by gusmano and colleagues entitled “shanghai rising: health improvements as measured by avoidable mortality since 2000” has spurred this commentary. we discuss controversial issues surrounding the concept of avoidable mortality in health service research in general and gusmano’s study in particular. the impact of overall social devel...