BACKGROUND The Curriculum Committee of the American College of Surgeons-Accredited Educational Institutes conducted a need assessment to (1) identify gaps between ideal and actual practices in areas of surgical care, (2) explore educational solutions for addressing these gaps, and (3) shape a vision to advance the future of training in surgery. METHODS National stakeholders were recruited fro...

Human resources for health are in crisis worldwide, especially in economically disadvantaged areas and areas with high rates of HIV/AIDS in both health workers and patients. International organizations such as the Global Health Workforce Alliance have been established to address this crisis. A technical working group within the Global Health Workforce Alliance developed recommendations for scal...

Health technology assessments represent comprehensive summaries of available evidence and information on a technology. They are used by medical decision makers in a variety of ways, including diagnostic testing, treatment selection, care management, patient perspectives, patient safety, insurance coverage, pharmaceutical innovation, equipment planning, device purchasing, and total cost-of-care....

BACKGROUND China is investing considerably in health care reforms to address issues in its health care system. An example is access to innovative drugs, which remains challenging because it is largely dependent on patient self-pay. Recognizing this, the government has invested considerably in its basic medical insurance. As health care expenditure increases, there are growing concerns on budget...

 To understand the role of health technology assessment (HTA) as a means of relating research with healthcare decision making.  To familiarize participants with the most important definitions related to HTA.  To recognize the main features of Economic Evaluations (EE).  To identify the usefulness and necessity of EE in the decision making process.  To understand the concept of opportunity ...

The quality of assessment of older people with health and social care needs has for some time been a concern of policy makers, practitioners, older people and carers in the United Kingdom and internationally. This article seeks to address a key aspect of these concerns, namely whether sufficient expertise is deployed when, as a basis for a care plan and service allocation, an older person’s eli...

BACKGROUND Randomized controlled trials provide robust data on the efficacy of interventions rather than on effectiveness. Health technology assessment (HTA) agencies worldwide are thus exploring whether real-world data (RWD) may provide alternative sources of data on effectiveness of interventions. Presently, an overview of HTA agencies' policies for RWD use in relative effectiveness assessmen...

quantitative assessment is the most important means to identify hazard potential and manage risk for an industrial process. the implement of quantitative assessment in the early stage will help to develop inherently safer process, eliminating the hazard and reduce the possibility of accidental chain events and the magnitude of consequences. in this paper, after reviewing the presently available...

speaking assessment is still construed as a complicated, under-researched process from the vantage point of tasks and rater characteristics. the present study aimed at investigating if and how english major and none english major teachers differ in their perception of the construct of oral proficiency while assessing learners’ l2 oral proficiency.  to this end, 38 male and female non-native efl...