Doctors were told last month that we should stop doing so many screenings for prostate cancer with the prostate-specific antigen test. We learned that sigmoidoscopy is a cheaper, easier and effective alternative to colonoscopy for colon cancer screening. And a study I led turned up strong evidence t

t is an uncomfortable question that, in today’s world, is often asked by expectant mothers who had more than one male partner at the time they became pregnant. Who is the father?With more than half of births to women under 30 now out of wedlock, it is a question that may arise more often.Now blood t

(Reuters Health) – A new, small study suggests medicinal marijuana may impair users’ driving skills – but might be missed by typical sobriety tests.At doses used in AIDS, cancer and pain patients, people weaved side to side more and had a slower reaction time in the hours after using the drug, resea

On 29 January 2013, a side meeting entitled “the establishment and evolution of health technology assessment organisations in low- and middle-income countries”, which was co-organized by HTAsiaLink and NICE international, intended to create an open space for sharing, learning and inspiring participa

In 2008, Myanmar proposed the development of a Health System Strengthening (HSS) programme to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and thus received funding and support for its initiative. The HSS framework aimed to shore up three main gaps which were identified: service delivery, programme coordination, and human resources. Ser

Pritaporn Kingkaew BPharm, MSc*, Yot Teerawattananon MD, PhD* * Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program (HITAP), Nonthaburi, Thailand While many of the principles that guide the economic evaluation of medical devices are somewhat similar to those that guide the evaluation of other

An aim of this study is to describe quantitatively and qualitatively progression and findings from the HTA topic selection process recently developed by HITAP. The process involves potential users of HTA information; namely (1) third party payers (public health insurers), (2) national health care program managers (Ministry of Public Health’s Depa

This study aims to determine the cost-effectiveness and cost-utility of medical rehabilitation services for inpatients suffering from a stroke. It will compare the outcome of medical rehabilitation services in terms of functional status and quality of life before and after service providing. Moreover, it will compare cost-effectiveness and cost-uti

The number of complaints made to the General Medical Council about doctors has risen 23% in the past year, the regulator says.The GMC report showed there were 8,781 in 2011 compared to 7,153 in 2010.The rise is similar to the one the year before and continues a trend which has seen complaints jump b

Strengthening Cost-Effectiveness Analysis in Thailand through the Establishment of the Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program. Tantivess S1 Teerawattananon Y1 Mills A1 1 Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program, Ministry of Public Health, Nonthaburi, Thailand 2 London