OBJECTIVE Since 2008, the Oxford Diagnostic Horizon Scan Programme has been identifying and summarising evidence on new and emerging diagnostic technologies relevant to primary care. We used these reports to determine the sequence and timing of evidence for new point-of-care diagnostic tests and to identify common evidence gaps in this process. DESIGN Systematic overview of diagnostic horizon...

Advancements in videoconferencing equipment and Internet-based tools for sharing information have resulted in widespread use of telemedicine for providing health care to people who live in remote areas. Given the limited supply of people trained to provide early-intervention services to infants and young children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, and the fact that many families who need such ser...

Cost-effectiveness analysis has much conceptual attractiveness in priority setting but is not used to its full potential to assist policy-makers on making choices in health in developed or in developing countries. We call for a shift away from present economic evaluation activities-that tend to produce ad hoc and incomparable economic evaluation studies and, therefore, add little to the compend...

background & aim: prenatal care is a key strategy for achieving public health goals, primary healthcare objectives, and the millennium development goals. the aim of this study was to investigate the factors influencing the use of prenatal care services in order to design suitable interventions and promote the use of these services. methods:in this systematic quantitative literature review, stud...

CONTEXT Comparative effectiveness research is increasingly being recognized as a method to link research with the information needs of decision makers. As the United States begins to invest in comparative effectiveness, it would be wise to look at other functioning research networks to understand the infrastructure and funding required to support them. METHODS This case study looks at the com...

We performed a cost-effectiveness analysis of a post-exposure chemoprophylaxis program for health care workers who sustained exposures to blood. We analyzed a program of (1) treatment with zidovudine alone versus no treatment and (2) treatment with three-drug therapy versus no treatment. Assuming that 35% of exposures were to HIV-positive sources, the zidovudine regimen prevented 53 HIV serocon...

Currently, there is wide-spread recognition that much of health care is insufficiently grounded in evidence as to what works for whom under what circumstances. An important reason for this is that research efforts often do not compare alternative options of health care nor are they sufficiently focused on outcomes that matter to patients. In addition, the methods to conduct research designed to...

AIMS To assess the cost-effectiveness of two primary care interventions, a letter and a flag, aimed at improving attendance for breast screening among (i) all women invited for breast screening and (ii) non-attenders. METHODS A probabilistic decision analytic model was developed using Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation implemented in WinBUGS. The model was populated using economic and effect...

BACKGROUND Effectiveness of Internet-based self-management in patients with asthma has been shown, but its cost-effectiveness is unknown. We conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis of Internet-based asthma self-management compared with usual care. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Cost-effectiveness analysis alongside a randomized controlled trial, with 12 months follow-up. Patients were age...