Discounting costs and health benefits in cost-effectiveness analysis has been the subject of recent debate - some authors suggesting a common rate for both and others suggesting a lower rate for health. We show how these views turn on key judgments of fact and value: on whether the social objective is to maximise discounted health outcomes or the present consumption value of health; on whether ...

This study aims to discuss approaches to assessing the value of medicines. Economic evaluation assesses value by means of the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). Health is maximized by selecting medicines with increasing ICERs until the budget is exhausted. The budget size determines the value of the threshold ICER and vice versa. Alternatively, the threshold value can be inferred from...

BACKGROUND The purpose of the present study was to assess the value for money achieved by bar-retained implant overdentures based on six implants compared with four implants as treatment alternatives for the edentulous maxilla. METHODS A Markov decision tree model was constructed and populated with parameter estimates for implant and denture failure as well as patient-centred health outcomes ...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the cost-effectiveness of prostaglandin E2 (dinoprostone) vaginal gel for the induction of labour at term from the perspective of the UK's National Health Service. DESIGN Economic evaluation conducted as part of a randomised controlled trial. SETTING Maternity department at a major teaching hospital in London, UK. POPULATION A cohort of 165 pregnant women presenting ...

PURPOSE The value of screening for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection before chemotherapy for nonhematopoietic solid tumors remains unsettled. We evaluated the cost effectiveness of universal screening before systemic therapy for sarcomas, including GI stromal tumors (GISTs). PATIENTS AND METHODS Drawing from the National Cancer Centre Singapore database of 1,039 patients with sarcomas, we ana...