OBJECTIVE To estimate the cost-effectiveness of ipilimumab (3 mg/kg) compared with best supportive care (BSC) in pre-treated advanced melanoma patients. METHODS The analysis was based on a US payer perspective and lifetime time horizon. A three-state Markov model was developed representing clinical outcomes, quality-of-life, and healthcare resource use of patients treated with ipilimumab and ...

213. Impact of Antimicrobial Stewardship Strategies on Antimicrobial Use: A Systematic Review Yvonne Peijun Zhou, BSc(Pharm)(Hons); Nathalie Grace Sy Chua, BSc (Pharm); Winnie Lee, BPharm(Hons), MSc (Epi); Maciej Piotr Chlebicki, MBBS, ABIM; Yixin Liew, BSc (Pharm), MSc (ID); Andrea Kwa, PharmD; Pharmacy, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore; Department of Infectious Diseases, Singa...

analysis in detecting M. tuberculosis at Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai hospital Kanokwan Pinyopornpanish, MD; Chansom Pantip, BSc, MS; Rassamee Keawvichit, BSc, MPA; Phadungkiat Khamnoi, BSc; Thira Sirisanthana, MD; Romanee Chaiwarith, MD, MHS; Intetnal Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Muang, Chiang Mai, Thailand; Research Institute for Health Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Muang, Chiang Mai, Tha...

OBJECTIVES To assess the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of topotecan as second-line treatment for small cell lung cancer (SCLC). DATA SOURCES Bibliographic databases were searched from 1990 to February 2009, including the Cochrane library, MEDLINE (Ovid), EMBASE (Ovid), PREMEDLINE In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations. Bibliographies of related papers were assessed and exper...

vital decisions made at the strategic level in an organization are not only intricate but also costly to alter. it is therefore important to find a comprehensive approach to deal with such a possibility. one of the major problems of a common balanced scorecard (bsc)-based model in strategic management is lack of a ranking system for strategic objectives in order to enable prioritization of the ...

This paper develops a new integrated evaluation and planning approach for implementing a given set of best practices in a prioritized and phased manner. The best practices are implemented for achieving lower-level business unit objectives and higher-level strategic goals of an organization. With a multiattribute decision making algorithm under the balanced scorecard (BSC) framework, a new evalu...

We propose and demonstrate a methodology for the construction and analysis of efficient, effective and balanced portfolios of R&D projects with interactions. The methodology is based on an extended data envelopment analysis (DEA) model that quantifies some the qualitative concepts embedded in the balanced scorecard (BSC) approach. The methodology includes a resource allocation scheme, an evalua...

We report on our experiments for the CLEF 2013 Entity Recognition Challenge. Our approach is based on a combination of machine translation and NE tagging techniques. The Silver Standard Corpus (SSC) is used to obtain a corresponding annotated corpus in the target language. The plain text of the SSC is translated and a mapping is created between entities in the original and phrases in the transl...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to compare the concentration of total airborne bacteria (TAB) in biosafety cabinets (BSCs) at universities and hospital microbial laboratories to assess the performance of BSCs. METHODS TAB was determined by using the single-stage Anderson sampler (BioStage Viable Cascade Impactor). The samples were obtained three times (with the BSC turned off and the...

BACKGROUND This phase III open-label trial investigated the efficacy of nilotinib in patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors following prior imatinib and sunitinib failure. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients were randomized 2:1 to nilotinib 400 mg b.i.d. or best supportive care (BSC; BSC without tyrosine kinase inhibitor, BSC+imatinib, or BSC+sunitinib). Primary efficacy end point w...