Measuring the U.S. Health Care System: A Cross-National Comparison

Compares U.S. healthcare data including hospital beds and physicians, hospital and physician visits, healthcare spending, and high-tech procedures per capita, as well as life expectancy with those of twenty-nine other industrialized countries

Whiplash associated disorders: a comprehensive review

This report is a compendium of papers on aspects of whiplash associated disorders (WAD). The aim of the report is to provide an overview of WAD from different perspectives: epidemiological, engineering, biomechanical, biopsychosocial, and treatment. Two recent studies on WAD in South Australia are also reported. The findings from studies published up until August 2005 are included in this report. Whiplash associated disorders are a complex phenomenon, triggered by a mechanical event but whose prognosis is affected by many factors including clinical and psychosocial factors. A thorough understanding of these factors provides a basis for dealing with the prevalence of WAD in the community and reducing the incidence of WAD.R.W.G. Andersonhttp://casr.adelaide.edu.au/publications/researchreports

Multinational Comparisons of Health Systems Data, 2008

Updates international comparison graphs and charts of 2008 health data among OECD countries, including healthcare spending by source and service, length of hospital stay, supply of physicians and nurses, drug coverage, medical technology, and mortality

Multinational Comparisons of Health Systems Data, 2009

Provides charts and graphs of international comparisons of health data among OECD countries, including spending on health care, length of hospital stay, number of physician visits, drug prices, prevalence of smoking and of obesity, and life expectancy

Using crash information to improve the treatment of crash injuries

This report examines whether there is evidence for the proposition that knowledge of the nature of a road crash aids in the treatment of injuries that arise from the crash. We reviewed published reports in which the utility of crash reports for triage was examined. We also reviewed the evidence in relation to chronic injury and whiplash injury in particular. There is some evidence that crash reports and information about the crash can assist in triage decisions and, in one study, steering wheel deformation was a good predictor of abdominal injury (which is hard to diagnose in some cases). There was very little direct evidence in relation to the treatment of chronic injury, but indirect evidence suggests that crash parameters that can be established, such as the change in velocity, are a poor predictor of chronic complaints. Any perceived benefit of crash reports in the treatment of chronic symptoms may arise as a result of their use in counselling the patient.S.L. Versteegh and R.W.G. Andersonhttp://casr.adelaide.edu.au/publications/researchreports

Metallurgical Evaluation of the Hoidas Lake Rare Earth Deposit

Hoidas Lake lies in the Northern Rae Geological Province, in the general vicinity of many of Saskatchewan's large uranium mines. The mineralogy of the Hoidas Lake rare-earth deposit differs from most other such deposits in that it is hosted in equal abundance in veins containing apatite and allanite mineral groups. Hoidas Lake also differs from other deposits in that it contains a significant amount of heavy rare-earth elements, such as dysprosium. This abundance of heavy Rare Earth Elements (REE’s) is significant, as there is a growing demand for the heavier rare earths in high-tech manufacturing (such as the use of dysprosium in the manufacturing of hybrid car components). Recently, metallurgical testing was performed on a Hoidas Lake REE deposit composite. These investigations included characterization, flotation testing, heavy media separation, magnetic separation testing, whole ore leaching studies, bond work index grindability testing, and relative abrasion index testing. This paper summarizes this research effort

Medicare Payment Reform: Aligning Incentives for Better Care

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has provided the Medicare program with an array of tools to improve the quality of care that beneficiaries receive and to increase the efficiency with which that care is provided. Notably, the ACA has created the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, which is developing and testing promising new models to improve the quality of care provided to Medicare beneficiaries while reducing spending. These new models are part of an effort by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to increase the proportion of traditional Medicare payments tied to quality or value to 85 percent by 2016 and 90 percent by 2018. This issue brief, one in a series on Medicare's past, present, and future, explores the evolution of Medicare payment policy, the potential of value-based payment to improve care for beneficiaries and achieve savings, and strategies for accelerating its adoption

Pharmaceutical “Pay-for-Delay” Reexamined: A Dwindling Practice or a Persistent Problem?

The Supreme Court ruled in FTC v. Actavis that a delay in generic entry may be anticompetitive when part of a patent settlement includes a large and otherwise unjustified value transfer to the generic company, termed a reverse payment patent settlement, or “pay-for-delay.” Following Actavis, drug companies have limited the size of reverse payments and have fashioned settlement terms that include more discreet categories of compensation to generic companies. In light of the fact that such settlements retain the potential for anticompetitive effects, the apparent size of the reverse payment may no longer be a useful gauge of the legality of pay-for-delay deals. In this Article, we argue that convoluted settlements in the post-Actavis landscape that camouflage value transfers from brand-name to generic companies necessitate a shift in the focus of antitrust scrutiny to the existence of any restriction on generic entry, together with a category of patent less likely to survive a challenge. We conclude with a discussion of pay-for-delay bills in the 116th Congress and propose several reforms to deter pay-for-delay behavior