Principles and progress in healthcare cost analysis : applications to economic evaluations in COPD

Due to medicalisation, ageing of the population, and technological and pharmaceutical developments, \-\!estern countries have been confronted with a rapid increase in the costs of healthcare during the last decades. The armamentarium of the medical profession has grown enormously and medications have become available for diseases for which, until recently, treatment was not possible. These developments coincided with increasing pressure on budgets of national governments and the awareness that limits must be set to the growth of the costs of healthcare. Instead of the automatic influx of new technologies, the need arose to assess these technologies in terms of their costs and benefits in order to decide upon registration, reimbursement and pricing (Boer, 2002). These developments have led to a significant increase in the number and variety of economic evaluations in health care. Economic evaluations have been performed for many different kinds of health technologies, including organ transplantation, diagnostic devices and treatment with medicines. Economic evaluations \Vere either performed alongside prospective randomised controlled trials, as standalone studies based on retrospective data, or as modelling studies incorporating economic and clinical data from a variety of sources. \,Vith the increase of studies, several authors have expressed their worries about the quality and comparability of these economic evaluations

Boosting care and knowledge about hereditary cancer: European Reference Network on Genetic Tumour Risk Syndromes

Approximately 27–36 million patients in Europe have one of the ~ 5.000–8.000 known rare diseases. These patients often do not receive the care they need or they have a substantial delay from diagnosis to treatment. In March 2017, twenty-four European Reference Networks (ERNs) were launched with the aim to improve the care for these patients through cross border healthcare, in a way that the medical knowledge and expertise travels across the borders, rather than the patients. It is expected that through the ERNs, European patients with a rare disease get access to expert care more often and more quickly, and that research and guideline development will be accelerated resulting in improved diagnostics and therapies. The ERN on Genetic Tumour Risk Syndromes (ERN GENTURIS) aims to improve the identification, genetic diagnostics, prevention of cancer, and treatment of European patients with a genetic predisposition for cancer. The ERN GENTURIS focuses on syndromes such as hereditary breast cancer, hereditary colorectal cancer and polyposis, neurofibromatosis and more rare syndromes e.g. PTEN Hamartoma Tumour Syndrome, Li Fraumeni Syndrome and hereditary diffuse gastric cancer

Comparing methodologies for the cost estimation of hospital services

Microcosting, Cost comparison, Cost calculation, Methodology, Hospital service, B40, B41, D24, D61, D70,

Modelling the 5-year cost effectiveness of tiotropium, salmeterol and ipratropium for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Spain

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Bronchodilators, Model, Cost effectiveness, Quality-adjusted life year (QALY), Spain,

Seleção de clones de batata-doce resistentes a Meloidogyne incognita raça 1 Selection of sweetpotato clones resistant to Meloidogyne incognita race 1

O objetivo deste trabalho foi selecionar clones de batata-doce (Ipomoea batatas) resistentes à raça 1 de Meloidogyne incognita e avaliar a eficiência do método de seleção empregado, pela estimação dos coeficientes de variação genética e ambiental e das herdabilidades no sentido amplo. Foram utilizados 123 genótipos de batata-doce, entre os quais quatro cultivares comerciais - Brazlândia Rosada, Brazlândia Roxa, Brazlândia Branca e Palmas -, e 119 acessos previamente selecionados no programa de melhoramento vegetal da Universidade Federal de Lavras. O delineamento experimental utilizado foi o de blocos aumentados, com três tratamentos comuns: as cultivares de batata-doce Brazlândia Branca e Palmas, e a cultivar de tomate Santa Clara, suscetível ao nematoide. A classificação dos níveis de resistência foi realizada de acordo com o fator de reprodução do nematoide e o índice de reprodução relativo à cultivar Santa Clara, de tomateiro. A relação entre os coeficientes de variação genética e ambiental e as herdabilidades no sentido amplo foram altas, tanto para o fator de reprodução quanto para o índice de reprodução dos nematoides, o que demonstra a eficiência do método empregado para a seleção de genótipos resistentes. Foram identificados 57 genótipos promissores de batata-doce, resistentes à raça 1 de M. incognita, e selecionados para continuar no programa de melhoramento.<br>The objective of this work was to select sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) resistant clones to Meloidogyne incognita race 1, and to assess the efficiency of the selection method deployed, through the estimation of genetic and environmental coefficients of variation, and broad-sense heritabilities. Genotypes assessed comprised 123 sweetpotato entries altogether, including four commercial cultivars - Brazlândia Rosada, Brazlândia Roxa, Brazlândia Branca, Palmas - and 119 clones previously selected by the Universidade Federal de Lavras sweetpotato breeding program. The experimental setup was a an augmented block design, using three common treatments: the sweetpotato cultivars Brazlândia branca and Palmas, and the nematode-susceptible tomato cultivar Santa Clara. Nematode resistance levels were defined both by the nematode reproduction factor and by the nematode reproduction index relative to tomato cv. Santa Clara. The ratio between genetic and environmental coefficients of variation and the broad-sense heritability estimates were high, for both nematodes reproduction factor and reproduction index, indicating that the selection method deployed was efficient for the selection of resistant genotypes. Fifty-seven sweetpotato clones were identified as resistant to M. incognita race 1, and selected to continue in the sweetpotato breeding program