INTRODUCTION Pregnancy and the first few years of a child's life are important windows of opportunity in which to equalise life chances. A Better Start (ABS) is an area-based intervention being delivered in five areas of socioeconomic disadvantage across England. This protocol describes an evaluation of the impact and cost-effectiveness of ABS. METHODS AND ANALYSIS The evaluation of ABS compr...

When health effects can be valued in monetary terms, as in cost-benefit analysis, they should be discounted at the same rate as costs. If health effects are measured in quantities (e.g. quality adjusted life years) as in cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) and the value of health effects is increasing over time, discounting the volume of health effects at a lower rate than costs is a valid method...

OBJECTIVE This article explores key principles of comparative effectiveness analysis--in particular, how radiologic comparative and cost-effectiveness studies differ from other clinical trials. Exemplary studies are reviewed to show how comparative effectiveness has been implemented in radiology and how future studies might be conducted. Finally, the article closes with a discussion of several ...

The authors present an analysis of the choice of sample sizes for demonstrating cost-effectiveness of a new treatment or procedure, when data on both cost and efficacy will be collected in a clinical trial. The Bayesian approach to statistics is employed, as well as a novel Bayesian criterion that provides insight into the sample size problem and offers a very flexible formulation.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the cost-effectiveness of a comprehensive programme for drug-resistant tuberculosis launched in four sites in China in 2011. METHODS In 2011-2012, we reviewed the records of 172 patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis who enrolled in the comprehensive programme and we collected relevant administrative data from hospitals and China's public health agency. For compari...

BACKGROUND A number of different measures can be used within cost-utility analyses, we compared results according to both the EQ-5D and SF-6D. METHODS A randomized trial was conducted to compare 4 options for people with knee pain. Over the 2 year trial period, the change in cost to health-service was estimated, and both the EQ-5D and SF-6D were used to estimate the change in quality-adjusted...

To aid priority setting in prevention, the Assessing Cost-Effectiveness in Prevention Project (ACE-Prevention) applies standardised evaluation methods to assess the cost-effectiveness of 100 to 150 preventive interventions, taking predominantly a health sector perspective. This information is intended to help decision makers move resources from less efficient current practices to more efficient...

background: eos is a 2d/3d muscle skeletal diagnostic imaging system. the device has been developed to produce a high quality 2d, full body radiographs in standing, sitting and squatting positions. three dimensional images can be reconstructed via stereos software. this health technology assessment study aimed to investigate efficacy, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of new emerged eos imag...

In the past 20 years, there has been increasing recognition of the need to consider cost in medical decision making. This period has seen an explosion in the number of economic evaluations appearing in the medical literature. Cost-effectiveness analysis is an objective systematic technique for comparing alternative health care strategies on both cost and effectiveness simultaneously. Cost-effec...