July 2010

July 17, 2010

Pilot testing of guidelines for the laboratory monitoring of high-risk medications shows that monitoring is highly variable and that there is room for improvement.

July 17, 2010

Use of rt-PA is associated with long-term cost savings, but more high-quality, current cost-effectiveness research is needed for stroke centers, care networks, and telemedicine.

July 17, 2010

Among Medicare enrollees with metastatic colorectal cancer, the use of newer chemotherapy agents was lower for African American patients and for older patients.

July 17, 2010

Algorithms based on managed care pharmacy data can efficiently identify persons at risk for undiagnosed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

July 17, 2010

Effective preventive treatments, early critical care, and multi-disciplinary rehabilitative strategies for stroke will reduce the national expenditure for stroke-related healthcare services.

July 17, 2010

The authors describe several simple changes that health plans can make in the design of pay-for-performance programs that may improve their effectiveness.

July 13, 2010

In patients with mild asthma, mometasone furoate dry powder inhaler resulted in improved adherence and fewer exacerbations than beclomethasone dipropionate hydrofluoroalkane aerosol inhaler.

July 13, 2010

Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding and gastric bypass are cost-effective treatments for morbid obesity compared with no treatment.

July 13, 2010

Routine preoperative MRSA screening of cardiac surgery patients could provide substantial economic value to third-party payers and hospitals under a wide range of circumstances.

July 13, 2010

A disease management program for Medicare Advantage patients with diabetes and coronary artery disease resulted in significantly reduced hospital admissions and total healthcare costs.