Objectives To assess whether recently-proposed alternatives to the quality-adjusted life year (QALY), intended to address concerns about discrimination, are suitable for informing resource allocation decisions. Methods We consider two alternatives to the QALY: the Health Years in Total (HYT), recently proposed by Basu et al., and the Equal Value of Life Years Gained (evLYG),…
The objective of this study, published in the International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, was to describe the trends in pharmacologic treatment for patients newly diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Alberta, Canada.
Health Technology Assessment (HTA) has always sought to incorporate the evidence of all patients affected in the decision-making process. While health system budgets could increase to cover costs of new technologies, the relevant patients are those benefitting from access to the technology being appraised. More recently, with health system budgets effectively fixed, costs of new…
This study, published in PharmacoEconomics – Open, reports exploratory analysis of the provincial and nationwide costs of industry-sponsored drug clinical trials (CTs) in Canada. The costs of industry-sponsored drug CTs completed in 2016 were Can$2.1 billion. In addition to the creation of knowledge, these trials play an important role in alleviating the healthcare cost burden…
| David Birnie, Jeff Healey, George Wells, Felix Ayala-Paredes, Benoit Coutu, Glen Sumner, Giuliano Becker, Atul Verma, François Philippon, Eli Kalfon, John Eikelboom, Roopinder Sandhu, Pablo Nery, Nicholas Lellouche, Stuart Connolly, John Sapp, Vidal Essebag
Guidelines recommend warfarin continuation rather than heparin bridging for pacemaker and defibrillator surgery, after the BRUISE CONTROL trial demonstrated an 80% reduction in device pocket haematoma with this approach. However, direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are now used to treat the majority of patients with atrial fibrillation. We sought to understand the best strategy…
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a preventable disorder caused by maternal alcohol consumption and marked by a range of physical and mental disabilities. Although recognized by the scientific and medical community as a clinical disorder, no internationally standardized diagnostic tool yet exists for FASD.
Using sources ranging from the biblical Book of Judges (pre-1700) up until the first public health bulletin (1977), we seek to provide an overview of the academic debate around early historical accounts ostensibly attributed to the awareness of alcohol as a prenatal teratogen as well as to describe the social and political influences that sculpted developments leading to the public…
In pharmaceutical clinical trials, industrial sponsors pay for study drugs and related healthcare services. We conducted a study to determine industry’s economic contribution of these trials to the Alberta healthcare system.
Cost is a critical element in almost all public or private decisions regarding health care and human services. While cost as “opportunity cost” is straightforward on a conceptual level, making the concept operational, quantifying costs and integrating such information into decision analysis is a continuing challenge. An IHE conference, “On the State of the Art…