OBJECTIVES To calculate total costs during the first year after diagnosis in 463 patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) included during 2006-09 (T2) and compare the results with a similar cohort included in 1996-98 (T1). METHOD Clinical and laboratory data were collected regularly in both cohorts, and patients completed biannual questionnaires reporting health care utilization and numb...

In the present economic context, the operating theater is considered as a critical activity in health care management. This paper describes a model for operating room (OR) planning under constraint of a unique equipment. At first level we schedule elective surgeries under the uncertainty of using a unique equipment. At the second level we consider emergency surgeries, and at the third le...

BACKGROUND There is a pressing need to include cost data in the Lives Saved Tool (LiST). This paper proposes a method that combines data from both the WHO CHOosing Interventions that are Cost-Effective (CHOICE) database and the OneHealth Tool (OHT) to develop unit costs for delivering child and maternal health services, both alone and bundled. METHODS First, a translog cost function is estima...

The RPPI Strategy is improved by involving in the testing costs as an evaluation factor. In software testing stage, the component software with both high RPPI value and low testing costs is given advantage to be tested. The new proposed method avoids the defects in common RPPI strategy, which is often impracticable because of too much extra testing costs. Since both the objective of higher RPPI...

Frictional costs are defined as the disutility related to the conduct of an online transaction. Thus, frictional costs can accrue through the consumer‘s decision-making process prior to an online transaction, e.g., bidding in interactive pricing mechanisms like auctions. We present two models for the measurement of frictional costs in Name-Your-Own-Price auctions where these costs can either be...

Carp is one of the most widely cultivated warm water fish, which has been introduced into many countries. It is essential for the manager of a carp farm to know the production costs and their evolution, showing the main inputs on which the cost reduction is worth effort. In Iran, carp farming is mainly based on common carp, silver carp, grass carp, and bighead carp, which were often reared in p...

Carp is one of the most widely cultivated warm water fish, which has been introduced into many countries. It is essential for the manager of a carp farm to know the production costs and their evolution, showing the main inputs on which the cost reduction is worth effort. In Iran, carp farming is mainly based on common carp, silver carp, grass carp, and bighead carp, which were often reared in p...