Publications by authors named "Askal A Ali"

This study applied machine learning (ML) algorithms to predict health-related quality of life (HRQOL) using comprehensive social determinants of health (SDOH) features. Data from the All of Us dataset, comprising participants with complete HRQOL and SDOH records, were analyzed. The primary outcome was HRQOL, which encompassed physical and mental health components, while SDOH features included social, educational, economic, environmental, and healthcare access factors.

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Introduction: Over one-third of the population in the United States (US) has prediabetes. Unfortunately, underserved population in the United States face a higher burden of prediabetes compared to urban areas, increasing the risk of stroke and heart disease. There is a gap in the literature in understanding early predictors of diabetes among patients with prediabetes living in underserved communities in the United States.

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Article Synopsis
  • The paper critiques existing health technology assessment (HTA) practices for not considering the wider economic and societal effects of healthcare interventions, such as impacts on income, tax revenue, and government spending.
  • It introduces a new conceptual framework combining distributional cost-effectiveness analysis (DCEA), input-output modeling, and a voting scheme to better assess the ripple effects healthcare interventions have on society.
  • A case study applying the framework shows that a digital therapeutic for opioid use disorder is not only more equitable than standard care but also has potential economic benefits, suggesting its relevance for employer-sponsored health plans.
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(1) Background: Continuous growth in pharmaceutical expenditure indicates the need for more advanced pharmacoeconomics evaluations to optimize healthcare outcomes and resource allocation. This study assesses the extent to which accredited pharmacy colleges in the United States cover pharmacoeconomics content within the didactic curriculum of their Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) programs. (2) Methods: We conducted a systematic search of the websites of accredited professional-degree programs in pharmacy schools located in the United States to identify pertinent content related to pharmacoeconomics.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on the use of steatotic donor livers (SDLs), which are increasingly common due to rising obesity and fatty liver disease, and examines their impact on transplant survival rates compared to nonsteatotic donor livers (non-SDLs).
  • Using advanced predictive models, researchers simulated over 20,000 scenarios to analyze the survival outcomes of patients who accept SDLs immediately versus those who wait for non-SDLs.
  • Results indicate that 25-30% of patients accepting SDLs may experience better 3-year survival rates than those waiting for non-SDLs, especially if wait times extend beyond the average of 260 days.
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Background: Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events (MACE) are common complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) that include myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and heart failure (HF). The objective of the current study was to predict MACE among T2DM patients.

Methods: Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients above 18 years old were recruited for the study from the All of Us Research Program.

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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer and third leading cause of cancer-related death among African Americans in the United States. However, when detected early, CRC is treatable and survival rates are high. CRC health disparities for African Americans compared with other groups may be due in part to lower screening adherence and later stage diagnosis.

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There is a paucity of predictive models for uncontrolled diabetes mellitus. The present study applied different machine learning algorithms on multiple patient characteristics to predict uncontrolled diabetes. Patients with diabetes above the age of 18 from the All of Us Research Program were included.

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How impactful is the use of Sertraline, Fluoxetine, and Escitalopram monotherapy on psychological distress among adults with depression in the real world? Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the most commonly prescribed antidepressants. Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) longitudinal data files from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2019 (panel 17-23) were used to assess the effects of Sertraline, Fluoxetine and Escitalopram on psychological distress among adult outpatients diagnosed with a major depressive disorder. Participants aged 20-80 years without comorbidities, who initiated antidepressants only at rounds 2 and 3 of each panel, were included.

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This study aimed to examine the difference in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and diabetes-related healthcare events (HCEs) among adults with diabetes who were on metformin, sulfonylurea, insulin, or thiazolidinedione (TZD) monotherapy. The data were sourced from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Diabetes patients ≥18 years old who had a complete record of physical component score and mental component scores in round 2 and round 4 of the survey were included.

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Background: Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors have been used as the standard of care for the treatment of diabetic nephropathy. Recently, dapagliflozin has been shown to reduce diabetic nephropathy when added to the standard of care.

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the cost effectiveness of dapagliflozin added to the standard of care in diabetic nephropathy in the United States of America (USA).

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Objective: The aim was to examine the real-world cost-effectiveness of breast-conserving surgery (BCS) plus hormonal therapy with radiotherapy, compared to hormonal therapy alone among women 66 and older with hormone receptor positive early-stage breast cancer in the United States (US).

Methods: This study was conducted from a U.S.

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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most diagnosed cancer in the USA, and African Americans experience disproportionate CRC diagnosis and mortality. Early detection could reduce CRC incidence and mortality, and reduce CRC health disparities, which may be due in part to lower screening adherence and later stage diagnosis among African Americans compared to whites. Culturally tailored interventions to increase access to and uptake of CRC stool-based tests are one effective strategy to increase benefits of screening among African Americans.

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Despite the achieved advancement in pharmacological cancer treatments, the majority of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer (mBC) will experience disease progression. Research into alternative therapies with improved efficacy and reduced side effects has led to the development of a new class of oral anticancer medications, the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitors, which include palbociclib, ribociclib, and abemaciclib. Nonetheless, there is growing evidence that the effectiveness of oral anticancer medications is sub-optimal, being influenced by low adherence, sociodemographic factors, and adverse effect profiles.

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The present data article aims to describe the input parameters for a Markov model assessing the cost-effectiveness of four treatment sequences for patients with HER-2 positive metastatic breast cancer. The model input parameters include costs for physician visits, drugs, adverse event management, computed tomography (CT) scan, laboratory tests, echocardiogram, utilities, disutilities as well as the shape and scale parameters of a log-logistic distribution used for the transition probabilities.

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Objective: Treatment options for HER-2-positive metastatic breast cancer (mBC) patients have expanded markedly since trastuzumab approval in 1998. Several other regimens are now available, including pertuzumab plus trastuzumab plus docetaxel, T-DM1, capecitabine plus lapatinib, and trastuzumab plus lapatinib. This study assesses the cost-effectiveness of four treatment sequences for HER-2-positive mBC according to the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Administration (TNHIA).

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Background: Time series models are widely used forecasting techniques in health care for long time series and are typically built in commercial statistical packages. However, for short time series data, such as health-related quality of life (HRQoL), guidance on how to select and use appropriate time series models is lacking. This tutorial provides a step-by-step guide adopting a time series analysis framework for HRQoL forecasting.

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Background: Radiotherapy is the recommended treatment after breast-conserving surgery (BCS) for early-stage breast cancer (BC). However, there is no clear evidence whether radiotherapy after BCS improves the survival of elderly women diagnosed with early-stage hormone receptor-positive (HR+) BC. The aim of this study was to investigate the survival benefit associated with radiotherapy plus hormonal therapy vs hormonal therapy alone after BCS for early-stage HR+ BC patients.

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Background: Hemodialysis is a procedure that requires efficient removal and return of blood to a patient's body. Despite being a life-sustaining process, hemodialysis is associated with morbidity, mortality, and high societal costs. A significant part of the financial costs to patients and society at large can be attributed to vascular access dysfunction.

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Purpose: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women in Mexico. A large proportion of Mexican patients present with advanced disease, and 25% have HER2-positive tumors. We performed a cost-effectiveness analysis of different sequencing strategies of HER2-targeted agents in Mexico according to various payer perspectives.

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Background: The selection of the most appropriate treatment combinations requires the balancing of benefits and harms of these treatment options as well as the patients' preferences for the resulting outcomes.

Objective: This research aimed at estimating and comparing the utility weights between elderly women with early stage hormone receptor positive (HR+) breast cancer receiving a combination of radiotherapy and hormonal therapy after breast conserving surgery (BCS) and those receiving a combination of BCS and hormonal therapy.

Methods: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) linked with Medicare Health Outcomes Survey (MHOS) was used as the data source.

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Purpose: Based on available phase III trial data, we performed a cost-effectiveness analysis of different treatment strategies that can be used in patients with newly diagnosed HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (mBC).

Patients And Methods: We constructed a Markov model to assess the cost-effectiveness of four different HER2 targeted treatment sequences in patients with HER2-positive mBC treated in the U.S.

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Unlabelled: Background The objective of this study is twofold: 1) to propose a simulation model for HER2+ metastatic breast cancer (mBC) which could further be used to assess the overall cost-effectiveness of the treatment sequences that would maximize survival of patients, and 2) to estimate transitional probabilities between treatment lines required to parameterize the simulation model, in the absence of individual patient data (IPD). Methods Individual patient data (IPD) were reconstructed for treatment lines composing four treatment sequences. Parametric models were tested to select the model that best fits the IPD.

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Objective: To investigate individual and contextual factors contributing to overall prostate cancer (PCa) survival in Florida.

Methods: A random sample of 6,457 PCa cases diagnosed between 10/1/2001 and 12/31/2007 was extracted from Florida Cancer Data System. Comorbidity was computed following Elixhauser Index.

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