BACKGROUND Comparative effectiveness research (CER) has been proposed in the United States as a way to compare new drugs and technologies with established alternatives and determine not just whether a therapy works, but how well it works compared to other options. OBJECTIVES To define the current use of CER in the development of new drugs and technologies and explore what is needed for this r...

Despite dramatic drops in DNA sequencing costs, concerns are great that the integration of genomic sequencing into clinical settings will drastically increase health care expenditures. This commentary presents an overview of what is known about the costs and cost-effectiveness of genomic sequencing. We discuss the cost of germline genomic sequencing, addressing factors that have facilitated the...

The United States is undertaking a major expansion of comparative effectiveness research, with the potential to achieve systemwide improvements in health care quality, outcomes, and resource allocation. However, to achieve these improvements in children's health and health care, comparative effectiveness research needs to be targeted, designed, conducted, and reported in ways that are responsiv...

OBJECTIVE In many high-income countries with low HIV prevalence, significant numbers of persons living with HIV (PLHIV) remain undiagnosed. Identification of PLHIV via HIV testing offers timely access to lifesaving antiretroviral therapy (ART) and decreases HIV transmission. We estimated the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of HIV testing in the United Kingdom (UK), where 25% of PLHIV are e...

BACKGROUND Recent years have seen an increase in primary care workload, especially following the introduction of a new General Medical Services contract in 2004. Telephone triage and telephone consultation with patients seeking health care represent initiatives aimed at improving access to care. Some evidence suggests that such approaches may be feasible but conclusions regarding GP workload, c...

In an era of spiraling health care costs and limited resources, policy makers and health care payers are concerned about the cost effectiveness of antibiotics. The aim of this study is to draw on published economic evaluations with a view to identify and illustrate the factors affecting the cost effectiveness of antibiotic treatment of bacterial infections. The findings indicate that the cost e...

Falls are a major public health problem in the elderly population. The associated health care cost is great. It has therefore become an important public health matter to evaluate those interventions that might be effective in reducing the risk of falls. Risk factors that predict an increased risk of falling are described. We discuss interventions that can be employed in the community to reduce ...

OBJECTIVES To examine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of two interventions based in primary care aimed at increasing uptake of breast screening. SETTING 24 General practices with low uptake in the second round of screening (below 60%) in north west London and the West Midlands, UK. Participants were all women registered with these practices and eligible for screening in the third rou...

The Medicare program has been a notable holdout in the global movement toward the use of cost-effectiveness analysis to inform health care decisions. Unlike the reimbursement authorities in Canada and Australia, and in many countries in Europe, Medicare officials do not formally consider cost-effectiveness when determining the coverage of new medical interventions, even as they also confront ev...

Many attempts to calculate costs caused by the use of alcohol in accordance with the cost-of-illness method have been reported in the literature. However, in a decision-making perspective and with a focus on what possible interventions to undertake, cost-benefit or cost-effectiveness studies are more useful. In this study the cost-effectiveness of advice aimed at reducing 'heavy' drinking to 'm...