1,720,960 research outputs found
Cost-effectiveness of immunoglobulin M-enriched immunoglobulin (Pentaglobin) in the treatment of severe sepsis and septic shock
No full textPurpose: To measure the cost-effectiveness of a specific polyclonal intravenous immune globulin preparation (Pentaglobin) in adult patients treated for severe sepsis and septic shock. Materials and Methods: Effectiveness data from a meta-analysis of 9 randomized trials (N = 435) were used to populate a decision model to estimate the cost-effectiveness of Pentaglobin and its comparator standard therapy from the hospital perspective in Germany. Primary outcome: all-cause morality; secondary outcome: intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay. Benefit was expressed as lives saved (LS). Published cost data were applied to assess differences in ICU treatment costs. Cost-effectiveness was calculated as incremental cost per LS. Results: Pentaglobin reduced the risk of mortality (P <.001) but had no effect on ICU length of stay. A baseline risk of mortality of 0.4434 (risk ratio = 0.5652; absolute risk reduction = 0.1928; number-needed-to-treat = 5.19) increased ICU treatment costs with Pentaglobin by euro2037 (euro22711 vs euro24747) with a cost per LS of euro10565. Sensitivity analyses on baseline mortality risk (95% confidence interval 0.3293-0.5162) and risk ratio (95% confidence interval 0.4306-0.7420) yielded a cost per LS range of euro5715 to euro28443 with a 56.3% probability of cost-effectiveness of euro12 000 or less. Conclusions: Pentaglobin is a promising adjuvant therapy both clinically and economically for treatment of adults with severe sepsis and septic shock. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
A new concept for DRG-based reimbursement of services in German intensive care units: results of a pilot study
No full textObjective. To evaluate LOS in developing a concept of borderline ICU LOS for a realistic reimbursement of intensive care. Design. Retrospective analysis of LOS and cost data extracted from patients' electronic records. Setting. Surgical ICU of the University Hospital Gottingen, Germany. Patients and participants. All adult ICU admissions with LOS >24 h over a 24-month period (1 January 2000 to 31 December 2001; n=1631.) Interventions. None. Measurements and results. Cluster analysis partitioned the ICU population into three homogenous groups based on ICU LOS and total direct costs: cluster 1 (n=1405; mean LOS=2.8; mean cost=e2399); cluster 2 (n=190; mean LOS=13.4; mean cost=e12,754); cluster 3 (n=36; mean LOS=34.9; mean cost=e34,173). Cost distribution between cluster 1 and clusters 2 and 3 combined was 48 vs 52%. Upper 95 percentile LOS of 6.7 allowed cluster 1 to be replaced by an LOS profile population of less than or equal to 7 days population (n=1355; 96% population and 91% total ICU cost overlap with cluster 1) representing 83% of total ICU population and 44% of total ICU costs. Stratification of >7 day population into LOS less than or >20 days (n=220; n=56) were further differentiated by mortality (11 vs 23%) and sepsis incidence (33 vs 79%). Conclusions. It may be feasible to formulate a LOS-based reimbursement scheme for ICU services in Germany based on the selection of (appropriate) patients' ICU LOS profiles
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Cost-effectiveness of drotrecogin alfa (activated) for the treatment of severe sepsis in Germany
No full textCost-effectiveness of drotrecogin alfa (activated) for the treatment of severe sepsis in Germany
No full textVariations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Cost-effectiveness of drotrecogin alfa (activated) for the treatment of severe sepsis in Germany
No full textDrotrecogin alfa (activated) (Xigris; Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, IN) significantly reduced mortality in severe sepsis in the PROWESS trial. We evaluate the cost-effectiveness of drotrecogin alfa (activated) as an adjunct to standard therapy from the German healthcare payer's perspective with respect to patients with 1) severe sepsis and 2) severe sepsis and multiple organ failure the approved European indication. Hospital resource use based on PROWESS was valued using German unit costs. German life-tables and long-term survival assumptions determined life-years gained. European and German healthcare resource use data are examined in the sensitivity analysis. We assumed a unit price of Euro237.50 for drotrecogin alfa (activated). Per patient treated, drotrecogin alfa (activated) increased costs by Euro7,500, and hospital costs by Euro900 for all patients (Euro7,400 and Euro1,500 respectively for the approved indication) and survival by 0.59 life years (0.87 life years respectively for the approved indication). Thus drotrecogin alfa (activated) cost Euro14,100 (Euro17,700 discounting life years at 3%) per life year gained for all patients (Euro10,200 and Euro12,900, respectively, for the approved indication). Testing the unit cost of drotrecogin alfa (activated), pattern of resource use, and survival benefit, demonstrated that cost-effectiveness lies well within the range of other life saving interventions in Germany representing good economic value. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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