OBJECTIVES The complexity of health technology assessment (HTA) has increased, in part because of its evolution through three distinct phases: the machine, the clinical outcomes, and the delivery models. However, the theoretical foundation for the field remains underdeveloped. METHODS It is high time for HTA to bring together aspects of conceptual and theoretical works from other fields to st...

Health systems are placing more and more emphasis on designing and delivering services that are focused on the patient, and there is a growing interest in patient aspects of health policy research and health technology assessment (HTA). Only a few HTA agencies use and invest in scientific methods to generate knowledge and evidence about the patient aspects of a given technology. This raises que...

BACKGROUND The relationship between regulatory approval on the one hand and health technology assessment (HTA) and coverage on the other is receiving growing attention. Those responsible for regulatory approval, HTA, and coverage have different missions and their information requirements reflect these. There is nonetheless an increasingly popular view that improved communication and coordinatio...

introduction: hanging is one of the most commonly used way to commit suicide in many countries. this method used in suicide is considered a problem in iran too, but no clear data exists regarding hanging in different regions or the country as a whole. because of the epidemiologic differences in non-judicial hanging in different regions, this study aimed to assess it in gilan province, iran betw...

ashworth and modified ashworth scales are the most widely used tests to assess the severity of muscle spasticity. these clinical scales offer qualitative and subjective information and consequently there are issues concerning reliability when two or more clinicians are involved in assessment of spasticity. this article presents the result of a study assessing inter-rater reliability of the orig...

background: formaldehyde is one of the most serious air contaminant that can be found everywhere. some of the source of formaldehyde include product of building materials, decorated materials, cigarette smoke, etc. aldehydes compounds especially formaldehyde are used as disinfectants for sterilization in different industries. in this study we measured formaldehyde workplace exposure with niosh ...

like bodily, physiological, and psychological skills which are commonly assessed in professional sport, assessment of visual skills is also of high importance. in this regard, and in order to organize teams efficiently, the skills of each player, considering his/her post in the pitch, should be developed for superiority over the opponent. the present study attempts to clarify if there is a mean...

assessment is considered as one of the fundamental elements in the field of foreign language acquisition. in order for communication take place, adequate number of vocabulary is needed to be known by the learners. the salient role of vocabulary in the field of foreign language acquisition resulted in the publication of several hundreds of papers and dozens of books. due to the dominant role of ...

introduction: teaching medical professionalism is increasingly acknowledged as an important aspect of medical education. the professionalism mini-evaluation exercise (p-mex) is an assessment tool for evaluating medical professionalism, but no studies using it as a self-assessment instrument have been reported. this paper reports on a preliminary investigation of the finnish version of the p-mex...

introduction: since educational empowerment of the faculty members of universities of medical sciences depends on our understanding of their educational needs. the present study aimed to investigate the educational needs of the faculty members of kermanshah university of medical sciences in 2011 in order to plan the appropriate training workshops. methods: in this descriptive study, the poll wa...