BACKGROUND Canada's Neo Rhino Party, a joke political party created in 2006 as a successor to the Parti Rhinocéros, is planning a new regulation to repeal the law of gravity, which could have an important impact on diseases attributable to gravity on earth. METHODS We sought to estimate the number of quality-adjusted life-years that would be saved if the proposed regulation is passed and dete...

BACKGROUND Continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) have become the dominant devices for mechanical circulatory support, but their cost-effectiveness is undetermined. This study assessed the cost-effectiveness of continuous-flow devices for destination therapy versus optimal medical management in advanced heart failure and compared the results with previous estimates for pulsatil...

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to evaluate the economic and humanistic implications of using ostomy components to prevent subsequent peristomal skin complications (PSCs) in individuals who experience an initial, leakage-related PSC event. DESIGN Cost-utility analysis. METHODS We developed a simple decision model to consider, from a payer's perspective, PSCs managed with and without the u...

BACKGROUND The response to therapeutics varies widely in patients with depression and anxiety, making selection of an optimal treatment choice challenging. IDgenetix®, a novel pharmacogenomic test, has been shown to improve outcomes by predicting the likelihood of response to different psychotherapeutic medications. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to estimate the cost effectiveness ...

BACKGROUND The appropriate time to initiate antiretroviral therapy is controversial for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients with CD4 cell counts between 200/microL and 350/microL and low levels of HIV RNA, potentially leading to barriers to treatment access. OBJECTIVE To examine the effect of cholesterol changes and fat redistribution symptoms on the clinical benefits and cos...

OBJECTIVE To examine the prognostic value of coping strategies of patients after stroke at time of discharge on quality of life approximately one year later. In addition, we estimated the maximum cost of improving quality of life by enhancing coping strategies using strict assumptions. METHODS Eighty patients with a stroke completed several questionnaires, at discharge to home and 9-12 months...

The main purpose of this research is to evaluate the role of the company life cycle in providing an appropriate model in predicting the quality of discretionary accruals (Abnormal) using the Dickinson Cash Flow Model approach. The statistical population of the research consisted of 180 company observations that were divided into three stages of life cycle using Dickinson's model variables (2011...