Evidence suggests that a significant number of medical technologies are of little or no benefit to patients. Under current budgetary pressures, state health care programs cannot afford continued spending on unnecessary medical care without further cuts in enrollment. Limiting coverage of high-tech care only to indications supported by good clinical evidence would help save state health care dol...

The European Council Directive 89/391/EC of 12 June 1989 is concerned with the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the occupational safety and health. For example, it deals with risk assessment and preventive measures. The Finnish legislation enacts the risk assessment and prevention measures in a similar way as the EU Directive 89/391/EC. The aim of this study was to examine:...

This paper investigates how fraud schemes can be integrated into the fraud risk assessment process and be incorporated into audit planning. A framework for assessing fraud risk using an evidential reasoning approach based on the belief-function formalism was developed in this paper. The framework extends fraud risk assessment models in prior fraud research in three respects. First, it integrate...

This article reviews the most relevant methodological aspects involved in Health Technology Assessment (HTA). Firstly, it addresses the process of defining the research problem (or scoping). Then it explains some specific aspects of systematic reviews of evidence, as well as indirect and mixed comparisons of the effectiveness of interventions. It covers also the methods for economic evaluation ...

Health impact assessment (HIA) has many advocates for its use to identify and optimize the health effects of non-healthcare interventions. It is an assessment of the health effects, positive and negative, of a project, programme, or policy. Expertise developed in the United Kingdom from a realization that health impacts are often overlooked during the planning stages of development projects but...

INTRODUCTION A large proportion of the cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden can potentially be prevented by primary prevention programs addressing major causal risk factors. A Web-based health risk assessment (HRA) with tailored feedback for individual health promotion is a promising strategy. We evaluated the effect on CVD risk of such a program among employees of a Dutch worksite. METHODS We...

Occupational hygienists and other health scientists should have little problem in accepting that approaches to the management of risk should be based on soundly constructed principles of risk assessment. Such thinking permeates many aspects of occupational health practice and is reflected in supporting legal frameworks, for example the Chemical Agents Directive (EC, 1998) and UK Control of Subs...

Age rating health insurance premiums—currently a key issue in the health reform debate—forces older people to pay more regardless of their health status. This paper demonstrates that alternative mechanisms to offset risk—such as risk adjustment and risk sharing—can be used to equitably compensate plans, ensure people access to a choice of plans, and encourage insurance plans to manage costs-eff...

BACKGROUND Web-based health risk assessment (HRA) programs can be effective in primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Insight into determinants of participation could improve implementation in the workplace. AIMS To evaluate determinants of participation and reasons for non-participation in a web-based HRA offered to 5125 employees at four Dutch financial and information technol...

Over the past three decades, a formal risk assessment process has been developed to provide consistent and transparent methods for the assessment of potential human health risks from exposure to environmental chemicals. Given a focus on risk to human health, epidemiological studies that identify associations between exposure to environmental chemicals and adverse health effects in humans have t...