Conducting secondary analysis of qualitative data: Should we, can we, and how?

How can we enhance the value of laboratory tests?

Today, the pressures on the healthcare systems for the controlling of the costs are extreme and all sectors try to demonstrate the value of their services by justifying the activities and expenditures so the value can be describe in terms like quality, efficiency, effectiveness, patient satisfaction, cost effectiveness .The value of the lab testing is generally directed to their costs and the c...

Yes, We Can! (Should We?).

We Can, but Should We?

We can, but should we? After recently reflecting upon our profession as pediatric critical care physicians , I concluded that this one complex question gets asked many times throughout the day – or at least it should. A recent report discussed an emerging paradigm in pediatric critical care medicine (1). With more and more chronic patients filling our pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), perha...

How Should We Be Conducting Routine Analysis of Traditional Emergency Department Syndromic Surveillance Data?

Introduction Along with commensurate funding, an increased emphasis on syndromic surveillance systems occurred post September 11, 2001 and the subsequent anthrax attacks. Since then, many syndromic surveillance systems have evolved and have ever-increasing functionality and visualization tools. As outbreak detection using these systems has demonstrated an equivocal track record, epidemiologists...

How much diagnostic safety can we afford, and how should we decide? A health economics perspective

Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research/Center for Health Policy, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA Department of Medicine, Center for Health and the Social Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinoi...