According to a recent report issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Task Force on Prescription Drug Importation (HHS Task Force Report), nearly 5 million shipments of unapproved prescription drugs entered the U.S. in 2003 from Canada through Internet sales and from travel to Canada by American consumers.1 Astonishingly, these unapproved shipments comprised roughly 12 m...

There are a number of measurement instruments in the field of education whose aims are to measure various aspects of educational technology. However, the psychometric properties of such instruments are not always determined, and their use is not always appropriate. The aim of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of the survey of factors affecting teachers teaching with techno...

A prevalence threshold to define rare diseases is needed for orphan drug designation. Here, we propose a bottom-up approach to defining rare diseases for China, based on the minimum number of patients needed for the industry to make a reasonable profit on a new drug. To obtain this patient population size, we considered three factors: (1) the industry research and development cost per new drug;...

Background: Traditional public health surveillance provides accurate information but is typically not timely. New early warning systems leveraging timely electronic data are emerging, but the public health value of such systems is still largely unknown. Objective: To assess the timeliness and accuracy of pharmacy sales data for both respiratory and gastrointestinal infections and to determine i...

In the article “Sodium Content in Packaged Foods by Census Division in the United States, 2009,” a recommendation by the Food and Drug Administration was incorrectly stated. A sentence in the article previously read, “The equivalized, sales-weighted proportion of products in each food category meeting Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sodium limits for foods using the ‘healthy’ label claim (ie...

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) plays an important role in controlling the drugs that are available at subsidised prices under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). In brief, the Committee provides advice on whether a new drug is sufficiently cost-effective to merit its being added to the PBS. Listing is important to the drug manufacturers, because it has a beneficial ...

Highlights Q The Good: Sweeping reform plan does not pass because it is too costly to be financed without huge taxes. But, healthcare disinflation continues; drug companies keep their pricing increases to CPI or CPI + 1%. Health supply/device stocks unit growth flattens, but best companies still achieve 12-15% growth. Firms withdraw from marginal businesses, trim sales forces/product lines and ...