1,721,221 research outputs found
Health State Valuation in Sri Lanka Using the EQ-5D-3l; Precursor to Qaly Estimation in South Asia
No full textObjectives
Quality adjusted life years (QALYs) are used commonly as an outcome measure in health economic evaluations. Health state valuations are used to determine the country specific utility values which are necessary to derive QALYs. The objective of this study is to derive an algorithm to estimate utility values for the EQ-5D-3L health states using preferences of Sri Lankan general population.
Methods
The time trade off preference elicitation was used to directly value 198 EQ-5D-3L health states in a general population sample (n=780) from Sri Lanka. Four district were used to data collect. The sample was selected by stratified cluster sampling with random selection within clusters. Each participant valued 15 health states via face-to-face interviews. Direct valuation was modelled to find values for the 243 health states. The best fit model was selected based on consistency, parsimony and goodness of fit. Based on logical inconsistency numerous sub samples were also used for model specification. For each model, the numbers of illogical orderings in the resulting value set were also examined.
Results
The best model specific action was generalized least squares with random effects. The sub sample consisting of participants with less than seven logical inconsistent observations and producing no illogical ordering in the final value set and was considered the preferred model. Compared to value sets in other countries, a high disutility is associated with level 3 deficits in the mobility dimension. More than 50% of health states in the Sri Lankan value set are deemed worse than death health states.
Conclusions
This study derived first EQ-5D-3L utility value set for the South Asian region. The Sri Lankan values deviate markedly from existing values for upper middle and high income countries.No Full Tex
Value of Information Analysis Guiding the Reimbursement Decision of Olaparib for Metastatic Breast Cancer
No full textObjectives: Olaparib can improve progression-free survival compared with chemotherapy in patients with a BRCA mutation and HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer (MBC); however, this drug comes at a high price (AU$6,900/pack). This study aims to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of olaparib in this population, and to use value of information (VOI) analysis to inform a potential risk-sharing agreement.Full Tex
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Variations on the Author
Full text link“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
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe 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
Rare Cancers, no Rare Solutions: Risk Sharing Arrangemnts to Reimburse Medicines for Rare Cancers in Australia
No full textObjectives:
Medicines to treat rare cancers (prevalence <1 in 10,000) often have high cost and an insufficient evidence base to inform their registration and reimbursement decisions. Various risk sharing arrangements (RSA) have been proposed to improve patient access to cancer medicines in Australia. We aimed to examine the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee recommendations on submissions made to list rare cancer medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).
Methods:
We reviewed publicly available PBS documents from March 2010 until July 2017 for antineoplastic and immune-modulating agents designated as orphan drugs by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. Data extracted included medicine name, indication, type of supporting evidence provided, source of uncertainty, reason for rejection or deferral, and the special RSA applied to medicines with a positive recommendation. The arrangements were categorised into non-outcome based (i.e., price reductions or rebate), outcome-based (i.e., clinical continuation rule), or data provision (i.e., coverage with evidence development) arrangements.
Results:
We identified 70 submissions for 30 rare cancer indications. Positive recommendations were made in 26 (37%) submissions with an average of 2.2 submissions to approval (range: 1-5). Uncertain clinical evidence was reported in 80% of the rejected/deferred submissions, predominantly due to uncertain overall survival benefit. Other reasons for rejection/deferral included high and/or uncertain cost-effectiveness ratios (75%) and inappropriate comparator (5%). Of the indications with positive recommendation, twenty (77%) had price reduction and/or rebate arrangements and 24 (92%) had a clinical continuation rule; however, only 2 indications (8%) were listed conditional on collecting more data.
Conclusions:
The majority of RSAs have focused on price reductions and/or rebates and clinical continuation rules; nevertheless, there is limited utilisation of coverage with evidence development arrangements. Provisional PBS listing conditional on collecting additional fit-for purpose evidence is a potential solution to mitigate decision uncertainty and improve patient access to medicines for rare cancers in Australia.No Full Tex
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe 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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