To what extent does surrounding landscape explain stand-level occurrence of conservation-relevant species in fragmented boreal and hemi-boreal forest? - a systematic review.

Background: Forestry and land-use change are leading causes of habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation worldwide. The boreal forest biome is no exception, and only a small proportion of this forest type remains intact. Since forestry will remain a major land-use in this region, measures must be taken to ensure forest dependent biodiversity.

Strategies to decrease inequalities in cancer therapeutics, care and prevention: Proceedings on a conference organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the European Academy of Cancer Sciences, Vatican City, February 23-24, 2023.

Analyses of inequalities related to prevention and cancer therapeutics/care show disparities between countries with different economic standing, and within countries with high Gross Domestic Product. The development of basic technological and biological research provides clinical and prevention opportunities that make their implementation into healthcare systems more complex, mainly due to the growth of Personalized/Precision Cancer Medicine (PCM). Initiatives like the USA-Cancer Moonshot and the EU-Mission on Cancer and Europe's Beating Cancer Plan are initiated to boost cancer prevention and therapeutics/care innovation and to mitigate present inequalities.

An experience- and preference-based EQ-5D-3L value set derived using 18 months of longitudinal data in patients who sustained a fracture: results from the ICUROS.

Introduction: EQ-5D-3L preference-based value sets are predominately based on hypothetical health states and derived in cross-sectional settings. Therefore, we derived an experience-based value set from a prospective observational study.

Methods: The International Costs and Utilities Related to Osteoporotic fractures Study (ICUROS) was a multinational study on fragility fractures, prospectively collecting EQ-5D-3L and Time trade-off (TTO) within two weeks after fracture (including pre-fracture recall), and at 4, 12, and 18 months thereafter.

European Groundshot-addressing Europe's cancer research challenges: a Lancet Oncology Commission.

Cancer research is a crucial pillar for countries to deliver more affordable, higher quality, and more equitable cancer care. Patients treated in research-active hospitals have better outcomes than patients who are not treated in these settings. However, cancer in Europe is at a crossroads.

To what extent does surrounding landscape explain stand-level occurrence of conservation-relevant species in fragmented boreal and hemi-boreal forest?-a systematic review protocol.

Background: Silviculture and land-use change has reduced the amount of natural forest worldwide and left what remains confined to isolated fragments or stands. To understand processes governing species occurrence in such stands, much attention has been given to stand-level factors such as size, structure, and deadwood amount. However, the surrounding matrix will directly impact species dispersal and persistence, and the link between the surrounding landscape configuration, composition and history, and stand-level species occurrence has received insufficient attention.

Towards Better Pharmaceutical Provision in Europe-Who Decides the Future?

Significant progress has been achieved in human health in the European Union in recent years. New medicines, vaccines, and treatments have been developed to tackle some of the leading causes of disease and life-threatening illnesses. It is clear that investment in research and development (R&D) for innovative medicines and treatments is essential for making progress in preventing and treating diseases.

How to improve efficiency in cancer care: Dimensions, methods, and areas of evaluation.

Unlabelled: Efficiency in healthcare is crucial since available resources are scarce, and the cost of inefficient allocation is measured in prior outcomes. This is particularly relevant for cancer. The aim of this paper is to gain a comprehensive overview of the areas and dimensions to improve efficiency, and establish the indicators, different methods, perspectives, and areas of evaluation, to provide recommendations for how to improve efficiency and measure gains in cancer care.

Multiple drivers of large-scale lichen decline in boreal forest canopies.

Thin, hair-like lichens (Alectoria, Bryoria, Usnea) form conspicuous epiphyte communities across the boreal biome. These poikilohydric organisms provide important ecosystem functions and are useful indicators of global change. We analyse how environmental drivers influence changes in occurrence and length of these lichens on Norway spruce (Picea abies) over 10 years in managed forests in Sweden using data from >6000 trees.

Value appropriation in hepatitis C.

Background: In 2015, the Swedish government in an unprecedented move decided to allocate 150 million € to provide funding for new drugs for hepatitis C. This was triggered by the introduction of the first second generation of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) promising higher cure rates and reduced side effects. The drugs were cost-effective but had a prohibitive budget impact.

The Porto European Cancer Research Summit 2021.

Key stakeholders from the cancer research continuum met in May 2021 at the European Cancer Research Summit in Porto to discuss priorities and specific action points required for the successful implementation of the European Cancer Mission and Europe's Beating Cancer Plan (EBCP). Speakers presented a unified view about the need to establish high-quality, networked infrastructures to decrease cancer incidence, increase the cure rate, improve patient's survival and quality of life, and deal with research and care inequalities across the European Union (EU). These infrastructures, featuring Comprehensive Cancer Centres (CCCs) as key components, will integrate care, prevention and research across the entire cancer continuum to support the development of personalized/precision cancer medicine in Europe.

Cost of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in Europe and the USA: The GAIN study.

Background & Aims: Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) leads to cirrhosis and is associated with a substantial socioeconomic burden, which, coupled with rising prevalence, is a growing public health challenge. However, there are few real-world data available describing the impact of NASH.

Methods: The Global Assessment of the Impact of NASH (GAIN) study is a prevalence-based burden of illness study across Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK) and the USA.

Propelling Health Care into the Twenties.

The scope and potential of personalised health care are underappreciated and underrealised, often because of resistance to change. The consequence is that many inadequacies of health care in Europe persist unnecessarily, and many opportunities for improvement are neglected. This article identifies the principal challenges, outlines possible approaches to resolving them, and highlights the benefits that could result from greater adoption of personalised health care.

Towards a cancer mission in Horizon Europe: recommendations.

A comprehensive translational cancer research approach focused on personalized and precision medicine, and covering the entire cancer research-care-prevention continuum has the potential to achieve in 2030 a 10-year cancer-specific survival for 75% of patients diagnosed in European Union (EU) member states with a well-developed healthcare system. Concerted actions across this continuum that spans from basic and preclinical research through clinical and prevention research to outcomes research, along with the establishment of interconnected high-quality infrastructures for translational research, clinical and prevention trials and outcomes research, will ensure that science-driven and social innovations benefit patients and individuals at risk across the EU. European infrastructures involving comprehensive cancer centres (CCCs) and CCC-like entities will provide researchers with access to the required critical mass of patients, biological materials and technological resources and can bridge research with healthcare systems.

Mission-oriented translational cancer research - health economics.

Health economics is an integrated aspect of all phases of mission-oriented translational cancer research and should be considered an intrinsic component of any study aimed at improving outcomes for patients and intervention costs. Information about value and value for money of new options for prevention and treatment is needed for decisions about their adoption and use by healthcare systems.

Cost of Cancer: Healthcare Expenditures and Economic Impact.

Healthcare expenditures for cancer account for a low share of total healthcare expenditures, compared to the relative burden of the disease. The share has also not changed very much over the last decades. Cost for cancer drugs has increased as a share of total expenditures, but this has been offset by a reduction of inpatient hospital care for cancer.

Advanced therapy medicinal products and health technology assessment principles and practices for value-based and sustainable healthcare.

Background: Advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) are beginning to reach European markets, and questions are being asked about their value for patients and how healthcare systems should pay for them.

Objectives: To identify and discuss potential challenges of ATMPs in view of current health technology assessment (HTA) methodology-specifically economic evaluation methods-in Europe as it relates to ATMPs, and to suggest potential solutions to these challenges.

Methods: An Expert Panel reviewed current HTA principles and practices in relation to the specific characteristics of ATMPs.

Landscape trajectory of natural boreal forest loss as an impediment to green infrastructure.

Loss of natural forests by forest clearcutting has been identified as a critical conservation challenge worldwide. This study addressed forest fragmentation and loss in the context of the establishment of a functional green infrastructure as a spatiotemporally connected landscape-scale network of habitats enhancing biodiversity, favorable conservation status, and ecosystem services. Through retrospective analysis of satellite images, we assessed a 50- to 60-year spatiotemporal clearcutting impact trajectory on natural and near-natural boreal forests across a sizable and representative region from the Gulf of Bothnia to the Scandinavian Mountain Range in northern Fennoscandia.

Characteristics of patients with depression initiating or switching antidepressant treatment: baseline analyses of the PERFORM cohort study.

Background: Patients who require a switch in their antidepressant therapy may have different clinical profiles and treatment needs compared with patients initiating or maintaining a first-line antidepressant therapy.

Methods: The Prospective Epidemiological Research on Functioning Outcomes Related to Major depressive disorder (MDD) (PERFORM) study was a 2-year observational cohort study in outpatients with MDD in five European countries. Enrolled patients were either initiating or undergoing the first switch to an antidepressant monotherapy.

Functional impairment in patients with major depressive disorder: the 2-year PERFORM study.

Background: The Prospective Epidemiological Research on Functioning Outcomes Related to Major depressive disorder (PERFORM) study describes the course of depressive symptoms, perceived cognitive symptoms, and functional impairment over 2 years in outpatients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and investigates the patient-related factors associated with functional impairment.

Methods: This was a 2-year observational study in 1,159 outpatients with MDD aged 18-65 years who were either initiating antidepressant monotherapy or undergoing their first switch of antidepressant. Functional impairment was assessed by the Sheehan Disability Scale and the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment questionnaire.

Quality of life after hip, vertebral, and distal forearm fragility fractures measured using the EQ-5D-3L, EQ-VAS, and time-trade-off: results from the ICUROS.

Introduction: The International Costs and Utilities Related to Osteoporotic fractures Study is a multinational observational study set up to describe the costs and quality of life (QoL) consequences of fragility fracture. This paper aims to estimate and compare QoL after hip, vertebral, and distal forearm fracture using time-trade-off (TTO), the EuroQol (EQ) Visual Analogue Scale (EQ-VAS), and the EQ-5D-3L valued using the hypothetical UK value set.

Methods: Data were collected at four time-points for five QoL point estimates: within 2 weeks after fracture (including pre-fracture recall), and at 4, 12, and 18 months after fracture.

The Three-Way Pendulum of Healthcare Innovation.

We are, understandably, forever hearing about the high cost of bringing innovative new drugs and treatments to the healthcare market, especially medicines for smaller subgroups, and the fact that member state health systems often baulk at the prices. This article will argue that such a bypassing and blocking of innovative medicines and treatments is not only counterproductive when it comes to the health of Europe's patients, but actually fails to take into account the economic arguments. The article seeks to show that the long-term benefit to patients and the economy (health means wealth) will outweigh initial costs down the line.

PRIORITIES FOR HEALTH ECONOMIC METHODOLOGICAL RESEARCH: RESULTS OF AN EXPERT CONSULTATION.

Background: The importance of economic evaluation in decision making is growing with increasing budgetary pressures on health systems. Diverse economic evidence is available for a range of interventions across national contexts within Europe, but little attention has been given to identifying evidence gaps that, if filled, could contribute to more efficient allocation of resources. One objective of the Research Agenda for Health Economic Evaluation project is to determine the most important methodological evidence gaps for the ten highest burden conditions in the European Union (EU), and to suggest ways of filling these gaps.