BACKGROUND When invited for the first time at age 50, most women in Germany have to decide whether they wish to participate in the German mammography screening programme. For ethical reasons, screening decisions should be informed choices, but this is rarely the case with mammography screening. Decision aids are interventions with the potential to support informed choice by improving the follow...

OBJECTIVE In Israel (population 5.7 million) there are around 200 known living subjects with thalassaemia major, of whom around 80% are from the northern district. This study aims at examining the costs and benefits of a national screening programme to prevent thalassaemia in Israel. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS The lifetime healthcare costs of caring for a person born with thalassaemia majo...

This chapter is a programme-level overview of the contribution of ACTS to new ways of flexible working, and highlights some of the technological issues that need to be addressed by the IST programme. The task of the ACTSLINE project is to summarise the results of ACTS in a form meaningful to communications professionals in various business sectors external to ACTS. For further information on su...

BACKGROUND Population-based colorectal cancer (CRC) screening is widely recommended, and members of the eligible screening population seem to be positive about it. However, it is not well known how people outside the eligible screening population view CRC screening, and whether they are supportive of the government providing this. Public opinion may affect people's personal views and their scre...

Aims. The study aimed to present the experience of a screening programme for early detection of diabetic retinopathy (DR) using a nonmydriatic fundus camera, evaluating the feasibility in terms of validity, resources absorption, and future advantages of a potential application, in an Italian local health authority. Methods. Diabetic patients living in the town of Ponzano, Veneto Region (Norther...

A programme was introduced in Wales to screen all 18 month old boys who were not yet walking for raised creatine kinase activity within the existing community developmental screening programme. During an 18 month period 25 229 such boys were identified of whom 19 930 (79%) had a Denver developmental screening test and 338 (1.7%) of these were not walking. Two hundred and five of those who did n...

European Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Cervical Cancer Screening have been initiated in the Europe Against Cancer Programme. The first edition established the principles of organised population-based screening and stimulated numerous pilot projects. The second multidisciplinary edition was published in 2008 and comprises approximately 250 pages divided into seven chapters prepared by 48 a...

BACKGROUND Organised colorectal cancer screening is likely to be cost-effective, but cost-effectiveness results alone may not help policy makers to make decisions about programme feasibility or service providers to plan programme delivery. For these purposes, estimates of the impact on the health services of actually introducing screening in the target population would be helpful. However, thes...

This paper seeks to shed light on the relative cost effectiveness of colorectal cancer by comparing the cost effectiveness of this programme with the economics of another screening programme which is widely implemented: cervical cancer screening. The paper illustrates the principles of optimal resource allocation, and discusses the limitations and strengths of the analysis presented. The paper ...

Lung cancer screening has received extensive attention for a number of years. As yet the goal of such a screening programme, a reduction in lung cancer mortality proven by a large randomised controlled trial, has not been achieved. Instead we are left with a number of unanswered questions and practical problems. In addition to the basic requirements for an effective screening programme, this re...