cost-effectiveness data is useful for use in priority setting decisions in order to improve the efficiency of resources used. this paper thereby responds to eckard et al. which addressed the use of cost-effectiveness data in the actual prioritization decisions in the swedish national clinical guidelines for heart diseases. based on a set of experiences on the use of economic evaluation in prior...

in a recent editorial for this journal, el-jardali and fadlallah proposed a new framework for knowledge translation (kt) in healthcare. many such frameworks already exist; thus, new entrants to the field must be scrutinized in regard to their unique contributions to advancing understanding and practice. the el-jardali and fadlallah framework focuses on policy-level discussions, a relatively und...

Commentary This commentary responds to the article by Goetghebeur et al [1], which applies the EVIDEM (Evidence and Value: Impact on DEcision-Making) framework to evaluate growth hormone therapy for Turner syndrome patients. The EVIDEM framework is developed to assist decision-makers in healthcare decisions, and encompasses a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) matrix consisting of 15 quant...

BACKGROUND Triage at the site of a major incident is key to effective scene management. A number of triage algorithms have been suggested to assist the triage officer to determine triage priorities. However, many advocated scores were not specifically developed for use in major incidents, nor are they designed for multiple age groups. Many of these algorithms have not been validated: those that...

All health care systems face problems of justice and efficiency related to setting priorities for allocating a limited pool of resources to a population. Because many of the central issues are the same in all systems, the United States and other countries can learn from the successes and failures of countries that have explicitly addressed the question of health care priorities.We review explic...

INTRODUCTION The Cochrane Collaboration aims to produce relevant and top priority evidence that responds to existing evidence gaps. Hence, research priority setting (RPS) is important to identify which potential research gaps are deemed most important. Moreover, RPS supports future health research to conform both health and health evidence needs. However, studies that are prioritising systemati...

South Africa, the country with the largest HIV epidemic worldwide, has been scaling up treatment since 2003 and is rapidly expanding its eligibility criteria. The HIV treatment programme has achieved significant results, and had 1.8 million people on treatment per 2011. Despite these achievements, it is now facing major concerns regarding (i) efficiency: alternative treatment policies may save ...

Existing methods used to screen chemical inventories for hazardous substances that may pose risks to humans and the environment are evaluated with a holistic mass balance modeling approach. The model integrates persistence (P), bioaccumulation (B), toxicity (T), and quantity (Q) information for a specific substance to assess chemical exposure, hazard, and risk. P and B are combined in an exposu...