BACKGROUND To evaluate the various treatments for patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer with bone metastases using a Markov model. METHODS AND MATERIALS The base case to be evaluated was of a man with hormone-refractory prostate cancer. The evaluated palliative treatments were pain medication only, chemotherapy consisting of mitoxantrone and prednisone, and single- and multifractio...

OBJECTIVE To estimate annual costs of a multifaceted adolescent sexual health intervention in Mwanza, Tanzania, by input (capital and recurrent), component (in-school, community activities, youth-friendly health services, condom distribution), and phase (development, startup, trial implementation, scale-up). STUDY DESIGN Financial and economic providers' costs and intervention outputs were co...

OBJECTIVE To perform a cost minimization analysis of total laryngectomy with postoperative radiotherapy vs induction chemotherapy with subsequent radiotherapy in patients with advanced (stage III or IV) squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx. DESIGN Decision-analysis model using data from peer-reviewed trials, case series, meta-analyses, and Medicare diagnosis related group reimbursement rates...

The efficacy of a mosquito netting to protect cabbages, Brassica oleracea L., against pests was investigated in field trials in Benin, West Africa. A polyester net covered the plants at night by using a wood armature. The net was removed during the day to prevent overheating and excessive shade, both problems of insect-proof screens used under tropical conditions. The number of all lepidopteran...

OBJECTIVE In response to burgeoning drug costs, North Carolina (NC) Medicaid encouraged pharmacists and prescribers to develop collaborative programs to reduce drug expenditures. One of these programs, the North Carolina Polypharmacy Initiative, was a focused drug therapy management intervention aimed at reducing polypharmacy in nursing homes. This intervention targeted patients with more than ...

AIMS To evaluate whether there is an association between 30-day mortality in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) included in clinical trials and country gross national income (GNI). METHODS AND RESULTS A retrospective analysis of the databases of five randomized trials including 50 310 patients with STEMI (COBALT 7169, GIK-2 2931, HERO-2 17,089, ASSENT-2 17,005, a...

Ines Weber, 2 Cécile Appert-Rolland, Grégory Schehr, and Ludger Santen Fachrichtung Theoretische Physik, Universität des Saarlandes D-66123 Saarbrücken, Germany Laboratoire de Physique Théorique, CNRS (UMR 8627), Univ. Paris-Sud, Univ. Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, France Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques, CNRS (UMR 8626), Univ. Paris-Sud, Univ. Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, F...

BACKGROUND Therapeutic maximum allowable cost (MAC) is a managed care intervention that uses reference pricing in a therapeutic class or category of drugs or an indication (e.g., heartburn). Therapeutic MAC has not been studied in Canada or the United States. The proton pump inhibitor (PPI) rabeprazole was used as the reference drug in this therapeutic MAC program based on prices for PPIs in th...