BER Performance Simulation of Generalized MC DS-CDMA System with Time-Limited Blackman Chip Waveform

Multiple access interference encountered in multicarrier direct sequence-code division multiple access (MC DS-CDMA) is the most important difficulty that depends mainly on the correlation properties of the spreading sequences as well as the shape of the chip waveforms employed. In this paper, bit error rate (BER) performance of the generalized MC DS-CDMA system that employs time-limited Blackman chip waveform is presented for Nakagami-m fading channels. Simulation results show that the use of Blackman chip waveform can improve the BER performance of the generalized MC DS-CDMA system, as compared to the performances achieved by using timelimited chip waveforms in the literature

Gene and Cell Therapies Overview Under the Light of Health Economics

With the increase in drug development studies for rare diseases, gene therapies have recently come to the fore more frequently. In addition to orphan drugs used in the treatment of rare diseases, advanced therapy medicinal products have been developed. Advanced therapy medicinal products are a fast-growing field. Although it is not a treatment method used only in the field of rare diseases, it is also used in the fields of oncology and cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal diseases. Regenerative medicine can be promising in cases where advanced therapy medicinal products are difficult and clinically uncertain. There are various cell therapies related to regenerative medicine and cell-based therapies are one of them. Gene therapies, cell-based therapies, advanced therapy medicinal products and regenerative medicine products have high producer price and high production cost. Because all these treatments have limited clinical evidence and high costs, they are difficult to evaluate in terms of health technology assessment (HTA), and special considerations are needed for evaluation. As a solution, costs should be limited and clinical developments should be provided in cooperation with the society. SAVE (equivalent to young life saved) is recommended to evaluate the lifetime health profiles of curative treatments such as gene therapies. In order to reduce the budgetary burden of gene therapies, outcome-directed entry agreements with income-based payments are recommended. Compulsory use of gene therapies and non-reimbursement of these drugs can lead to catastrophic health expenditures. Various payment methods are offered to avoid catastrophic health expenditures. Income-based payment and outcome-based payment are some of these methods. It is also advocated that high prices should be accepted by the society, since gene therapies to be applied in the treatment of rare diseases will be applied to a small population. Both the support of the society to accept the high price of gene therapies, the support of the producer and the support of the payer are important in the development of gene therapies and their supply to the market

Will Translational Science Help Reduce Costs of Illness?

The purpose of this commentary is to (1) review the definition and potential benefits of translational science research, (2) comment on funding trends for translational science, (3) pose a question for scientists to discuss, and (4) propose recommendations for such a discussion. Type: Commentar

Will a Fixed Price Reimbursement Policy for Statins be Cost-Effective for Turkey's Health Care System?

Type: Commentar

Analysis of Market Access Agreements in Turkey

BACKGROUND: Reimbursement agencies are increasingly adopting innovative reimbursement approaches for new and expensive technologies. Social Security Institution (SSI), Turkey`s reimbursement agency, established the Alternative Reimbursement Commission (ARC) on February 10, 2016. This study aimed to understand the implementations of market access agreements in recent years in Turkey.METHODS: Decisions of the Health Services Pricing Commission published in the official gazette , and information from the Turkey Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, the Abroad Drug List, Health Implementation Communique published by SSI with additional lists, such as the Annex-4A List of Reimbursed Medicines and the Annex-4C Abroad Drug Price List, were used. The data was transferred to Windows Office Excel files, and a descriptive analysis was conducted and evaluated by two market access experts.RESULTS: There were 57 drugs included in the coverage of reimbursement with alternative reimbursement since the application was started in Turkey. 35 of them were added to Annex-4A and 22 of them to Annex-4C. Furthermore, 45.6% of the drugs had an Anatomic Therapeutic Chemical Classification (ATC) code of l-antineoplastic and immunomodulating agents, 28% were orphan drugs, 44 of them had a confidential discount rate, and financial-based agreement models were preferred for nearly all agreements.CONCLUSIONS: Turkey has been implementing market access agreements since mid-2016. In the past 3 years, 57 drugs have been covered for reimbursement under the new implementation. Further analysis should be conducted to understand the decision-making process involved

Treatment cost of metastatic colon cancer in Turkey

OBJECTIVES: Colon cancer is the third most common in the top cancer incidence list in Europe. In Europe 212,000 patients die every year due to colon cancer. In Turkey 120,000-130,000 new cancer patients are diagnosed every year, 7.1% of whom are diagnosed to have developed colon cancer. Metastases will occur in up to 50% of the patients who are newly diagnosed. Survival appears to be further prolonged to more than 20 months with new pharmaceuticals; however, these new pharmaceuticals increase the total cost of care. The aim of this study is to estimate the cost implications of new colon cancer treatment options for Turkey.METHODS: Gazi University Hospital treatment protocols for colon cancer treatment were used. Cost of FUFA (5 FU/LV), FOLFIRI, FOLFOX, bevacizumab/FUFA, bevacizumab/FOLFIRI, bevacizumab/FOLFOX, irinotecan and irinotecan/cetixumab protocols were calculated. The cost of combination of protocols were calculated depending on a Markov analysis. The exchange rate was US$1 for TL 1.5.RESULTS: Depending on the life expectancy the lowest total cost was established by FUVA (US$ 5,359). It was followed by FOLFIRI then FOLFOX and FOLFOX, US$14,144 and US$ 16,553, respectively. The lowest cost for each week of life expectancy was established by FUVA with US$ 98.CONCLUSIONS: Only FUFA, FOLFIRI followed by FOLFIX, FOLFIRI/bevacizumab then FOLFOX then cetuximab, FOLFOX/bevacizumab then irinotecan then cetuximab/irinotecan and FOLFIRI/bevacizumab then FOLFOX then cetuximab/irinotecan were under the cost effectiveness curve. In addition no treatments ICER was under the WHO`s threshold for Turkey, except FOLFIRI then FOLFOX compared with FUVA

A Market Research Of Obesity And Bariatric Surgery In Turkey And Tunisia

This article aims to discuss four topics according to the recent scientific data a) to overview the frequency of obese and overweight individuals among Tunisia and Turkey populations; b) to examine health technology assessment of bariatric surgery (BS) report (HTA) in Tunisia and Turkey; c) to evaluate the cost and cost reimbursements by social health systems for bariatric surgery in Turkey and Tunisia; d) to examine the total number of bariatric surgical procedures and their costs in state and private health organizations in Tunisia and Turkey. The OECD (2011-2017) Turkey report was included for the data for the frequency of obese and over-weighted people among the general population Turkey, while the WHO report of «Diabetes Prevalence and Diabetes Risk Factors» of 2016 was included for Tunisia