Limits on health care resources mandate that resource-allocation decisions be guided by consideration of cost in relation to the associated expected benefits. It therefore leads to an increased demand for economic evaluation and medical technology assessment. Nowadays, cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) has emerged as a favored analytic technique for economic evaluation in health care. Currently...

Objectives Past research has indicated that Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) could be used as an alternative methodology for assessing the value of new medical technologies in the context of Health Technology Assessment (HTA). The objective of this study is to apply in practice an MCDA framework for the value assessment of a set of therapeutic options in metastatic colorectal cancer t...

BACKGROUND Gait analysis is the study of human locomotion. In massage therapy, this observation is part of an assessment process that informs treatment planning. Massage therapy students must apply the theory of gait assessment to simulated patients. At Humber College, the gait assessment module traditionally consists of a textbook reading and a three-hour, in-class session in which students pe...

Introduction The Brazilian health technology assessment (HTA) process includes calls for public consultations, in which society can give its opinion on reports emitted by the National Committee Health Technology Incorporation (CONITEC). Open and closed queries consultation are performed official formularies be accessed online at CONITEC webpage. Queries divided into two categories of reports: c...

OBJECTIVES Model for ASsessment of Telemedicine Applications (MAST) is a health technology assessment (HTA) inspired framework for assessing the effectiveness and contribution to quality of telemedicine applications based on rigorous, scientific data. This study reports from a study of how it was used and perceived in twenty-one pilots of the European project RENEWING HEALTH (RH). The objective...

BACKGROUND The Iranian healthcare system is primarily an insurance based system. This structure has an important influence on the efficiency and equity of the provision of healthcare in Iran. This paper reviews the history of the Iranian healthcare system and the impact of the Iranian health insurance system on healthcare performance based on the results of interviews with key opinion leaders a...

hav We are proud to present this special issue of Value in Health: Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research in Latin America. We resent a combination of plenary summaries presented at the nternational Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Reearch (ISPOR) Second Latin America Conference held in Brazil uring September 2009, and original research studies conucted in our region. We think this co...

OBJECTIVES This article presents an overview of the Spanish health sector variables and drug policies as well as highlights the perspectives of new reforms. METHODS Initially, the text frames the health sector in the sociodemographic context; it describes the past two decades of demographic changes noting particularly the very low birth rate and the growth in the proportion of the elderly. It...

We have entered a new therapy-world called the world of evidence-based practice. That this world is new is, in its own way, rather odd. On one level of thinking, one would hope that we have engaged in evidence-based practice for a long time already, if not forever. Surely, none of us engages in therapy strategies and techniques that have no evidence for being effective, do we? Well, yes and no....