We address the problem of recommending an appliance usage schedule to the homeowner which balances between maximising total savings and maintaining sufficient user convenience. An important challenge within this problem is how to elicit the the user preferences with low intrusiveness, in order to identify new schedules with high cost savings, that still lies within the user’s comfort zone. To t...

This paper identifies and demonstrates proven techniques that achieve real cost savings from supply chain management, and provides information on how to apply these techniques in various business situations. Most supply chain professionals have knowledge of supply chain management, but many find serious challenges in achieving actual cost savings from the concept. This paper provides informatio...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to estimate travel-related and environmental savings resulting from the use of telemedicine for outpatient specialty consultations with a university telemedicine program. METHODS The study was designed to retrospectively analyze the telemedicine consultation database at the University of California Davis Health System (UCDHS) between July 1996 and Dec...

AIMS To assess the screening characteristics and cost-effectiveness of screening for left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) in community subjects. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 1392 members of the general public and 928 higher risk subjects were randomly selected from seven community practices. Attending subjects underwent an ECG, N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NTproBNP) ser...

Payers in Europe and North America have embraced generic medicines because of their perceived cost advantages in relation to branded products and the savings they create to health insurance. A robust body of evidence exists to date pointing at savings achieved through genericization. All stakeholders accept that realizing these savings is desirable as health systems face continuous cost pressur...

While it is relatively easy to calculate broad savings estimates on the basis of information contained in cost-comparison documents, an understanding of the sources of those savings can be gleaned only through an in-depth examination of the cases in question. Below, we summarize the sources of cost savings for each of the sites visited. This information was drawn both from the interviews and fr...

INTRODUCTION Despite progress in implementing smoke-free laws in indoor public places and workplaces, millions of Americans remain exposed to secondhand smoke at home. The nation's 80 million multiunit housing residents, including the nearly 7 million who live in subsidized or public housing, are especially susceptible to secondhand smoke infiltration between units. METHODS We calculated nati...

The pulp and paper industry accounts for over 12% of total manufacturing energy use in the U.S. (U.S. EIA 1997a), contributing 9% to total manufacturing carbon dioxide emissions. In the last twenty-five years primary energy intensity in the pulp and paper industry has declined by an average of 1% per year. However, opportunities still exist to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in t...

BACKGROUND Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a common and potentially fatal healthcare-associated infection. Improving diagnostic tests and infection control measures may prevent transmission. We aimed to determine, in resource-limited settings, whether it is more effective and cost-effective to allocate resources to isolation or to diagnostics. METHODS We constructed a mathematical mo...

BACKGROUND Task shifting has become an increasingly popular way to increase access to health services, especially in low-resource settings. Research has demonstrated that task shifting, including the use of community health workers (CHWs) to deliver care, can improve population health. This systematic review investigates whether task shifting in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) re...