This book by Pascale Lahoux at times appears lengthy and somewhat obscurely written. However, it presents many examples and a broad vision and understanding of health technology and health technology assessment as it is applied today. The fact that modern medicine is both producer and consumer of technology and in reality cannot be seen as a separate entity is stressed throughout this interesti...

AIM To investigate differences in access to services and health outcomes between people living with Type 1 (T1DM) and Type 2 (T2DM) diabetes in rural/regional and metropolitan areas. METHODS Diabetes MILES--Australia was a national postal/online survey of persons registered with the National Diabetes Services Scheme. Selected variables, including utilisation of health care services and self-c...

The authors reviewed interventions using cultural leverage to narrow racial disparities in health care. Thirty-eight interventions of three types were identified: interventions that modified the health behaviors of individual patients of color, that increased the access of communities of color to the existing health care system, and that modified the health care system to better serve patients ...

Self-care is an important approach to the management of long-term health conditions and in preventing ill-health by living a healthy lifestyle. The concept has been used to a limited extent in relation to mental health, but it overlaps with the related concepts of recovery, self-management and self-help. These related concepts all entail individuals having more choice and control over treatment...

The assessment of quality of care is becoming increasingly important in healthcare, both globally and in the Netherlands. The Dutch Minister of Health declared 2015 to be the year of transparency, thereby aiming to improve quality of care by transparent reporting of outcome data. With the increasing importance of transparency, knowledge on quality measurement will be essential for a cardiologis...

OBJECTIVES The Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS) are mandated outcome-measures in many mental-health jurisdictions. When HoNOS are used in different care settings, it is important to assess if setting specific bias exists. This article examines the consistency of HoNOS in a sample of psychiatric patients transitioned from acute inpatient care and community centres. SETTING A regiona...

OBJECTIVES To provide an overview of the development of health technology assessment (HTA) in Germany since the 1990s. METHODS Analysis of key documents (e.g. literature, laws, and other official documentation) and personal experiences. RESULTS Health technology assessment (HTA) entered the political agenda in Germany only in the mid-1990s, basically as the result of a top-down approach tow...

BACKGROUND The number of children worldwide requiring palliative care services is increasing due to advances in medical care and technology. The use of outcome measures is important to improve the quality and effectiveness of care. AIM To systematically identify health-related quality-of-life outcome measures that could be used in paediatric palliative care and examine their feasibility of us...

. . . a system of coordinated health care interventions and communications for populations with conditions in which patient self-care efforts are significant. Disease management supports the physician or practitioner/patient relationship and plan of care; emphasizes prevention of exacerbations and complications utilizing evidence-based practice guidelines and patient empowerment strategies; and...

The purposes of this research were to determine the cost of occupational health and safety and work-related health problems, accidents, injuries and illnesses in rubber tappers by implementing a program in which rubber tappers were provided training on self-care in order to reduce and prevent work-related accidents, injuries and illnesses. Data on costs for healthcare, the prevention and the tr...