There is limited information about the impact of frailty on public payer costs in cardiac surgery. This study aimed to determine quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and costs associated with pre-operative frailty in patients referred for cardiac surgery.

Community Health Workers (CHWs) play a vital role delivering health services to vulnerable populations in low resource settings. In Rwanda, CHWs provide village-level care focused on maternal/child health, control of infectious diseases, and health education, but do not receive salaries for these services. CHWs make up the largest single group involved in health delivery in the…

Many countries continue to consider implementing a universal chickenpox vaccine program; however, there is no consensus on the most appropriate and effective timing between vaccine doses. The chickenpox vaccine schedule debate is highlighted in Canada, where there are currently eight different vaccine schedules across the country. The objective of this study was to test the overall…

Overconsumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) contributes to childhood and adult obesity and numerous related diseases, including heart disease, strokes, cancers, and type 2 diabetes. It also increases healthcare costs. Sugary drink taxes have been implemented in several countries to curb sugar intake. However, there is a concern that sugary drink taxes are regressive. This…

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an opportunistic bacterial organism resistant to first line antibiotics. Acquisition of MRSA is often classified as either healthcare-associated or community-acquired. It has been shown that both healthcare-associated and community-acquired infections contribute to the spread of MRSA within healthcare facilities. The objective…

In June 2015, Alberta, Canada instituted a universal publicly funded rotavirus vaccination programme (Rotarix, RV1), with vaccine doses scheduled for 2 and 4months of age. Vaccination was restricted so that infants were only allowed to receive first dose between 6 and 20 weeks of age, and second dose before eight calendar months of age. We assessed the coverage and schedule non-compliance…

The authors aimed to determine the cost effectiveness of initiating treatment early in the disease course (within 2 years of CD diagnosis) vs later in the disease course (more than 2 years after diagnosis). To do so, the authors constructed a Markov model of a hypothetical cohort of patients with CD in Canada to simulate disease progression after initiation of infliximab or adalimumab…

OBJECTIVES: To examine the resource use and healthcare costs for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Alberta, Canada between 2008 and 2016 and model the future costs to 2030.

To assess vaccine coverage for a cohort of children who have been in the care of the child welfare system compared to children in the general population.

Little is known about resource use and cost burden of Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) beyond the index event. We examined resource use and care costs during the first and each subsequent year, among patients with incident AMI.

Biological interactions between varicella (chickenpox) and herpes zoster (shingles), two diseases caused by the varicella zoster virus (VZV), continue to be debated including the potential effect on shingles cases following the introduction of universal childhood chickenpox vaccination programs. We investigated how chickenpox vaccination in Alberta impacts the incidence and age-distribution…

Little is known about the cost burden of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) on healthcare systems. Accordingly, we examined the long-term trends of healthcare costs for AMI in the province of Alberta, Canada.

The recently released Canadian cardiac care quality indicators include 30-day in-hospital mortality and readmission rates after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). We examined long-term trends and provincial variations in these outcomes among acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients.

In the nurse-led care (NLC) model, nurses take on the primary responsibility for patient management. We systematically assessed the effect of NLC for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on multiple dimensions of quality of care from the Alberta Quality of Care Matrix for Health.

A patient research internship (Patient and Community Engagement Research program-PaCER) was created to support a provincial commitment by Alberta Health Services' Strategic Clinical Networks™ to find new ways to engage patients in a new interdisciplinary organization to support evidence-informed improvements in clinical outcomes across the health system.

This study aims to summarise and describe the evolution of published economic evaluations of vaccines in Canada, thereby outlining the current state of this expanding and meaningful research.

Middle-aged individuals classified as normal by BMI may be overweight/obese based on measures of %BF. These individuals may be at risk for chronic diseases, but would not be identified as such based on their BMI classification. Quantifying %BF in this group could inform targeted strategies for disease prevention.

Since whole-genome sequencing (WGS) information can have positive and negative personal utility for individuals, we examined predictors of willingness to pay (WTP) for WGS. Patients & methods: We surveyed two independent populations: adult patients (n = 203) and college seniors (n = 980). Ordinal logistic regression models were used to characterize the relationship between…

The growth of "big data" and the emphasis on patient-centered health care have led to the increasing use of two key technologies: personalized medicine and digital medicine. For these technologies to move into mainstream health care and be reimbursed by insurers, it will be essential to have evidence that their benefits provide reasonable value relative to their costs. These technologies,…

We examine key study design challenges of using stated-preference methods to estimate the value of whole-genome sequencing (WGS) as a specific example of genomic testing. Assessing the value of WGS is complex because WGS provides multiple findings, some of which can be incidental in nature and unrelated to the specific health concerns that motivated the test. In addition, WGS results…

Eplerenone has been demonstrated as being cost effective for the treatment of patients with systolic heart failure (HF) and mild symptoms in several jurisdictions; however, its cost effectiveness is unknown in the context of Alberta, Canada.

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…