Self-Reported COVID-19 Vaccine and Booster Acceptance and Hesitancy Among Autistic Adults in Pennsylvania: Cross-Sectional Analysis of Survey Data.

Background: The autistic population is rapidly increasing; meanwhile, autistic adults face disproportionate risks for adverse COVID-19 outcomes. Limited research indicates that autistic individuals have been accepting of initial vaccination, but research has yet to document this population's perceptions and acceptance of COVID-19 boosters.

Objective: This study aims to identify person-level and community characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccination and booster acceptance among autistic adults, along with self-reported reasons for their stated preferences.

Optimizing Interventions for Equitability: Some Initial Ideas.

Interventions (including behavioral, biobehavioral, biomedical, and social-structural interventions) hold tremendous potential not only to improve public health overall but also to reduce health disparities and promote health equity. In this study, we introduce one way in which interventions can be optimized for health equity in a principled fashion using the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST). Specifically, we define intervention equitability as the extent to which the health benefits provided by an intervention are distributed evenly versus concentrated among those who are already advantaged, and we suggest that, if intervention equitability is acknowledged to be a priority, then equitability should be a key criterion that is balanced with other criteria (effectiveness overall, as well as affordability, scalability, and/or efficiency) in intervention optimization.

Racial and ethnic disparities in emergency department transfers to public hospitals.

Objective: To examine racial/ethnic differences in emergency department (ED) transfers to public hospitals and factors explaining these differences.

Data Sources And Study Setting: ED and inpatient data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project for Florida (2010-2019); American Hospital Association Annual Survey (2009-2018).

Study Design: Logistic regression examined race/ethnicity and payer on the likelihood of transfer to a public hospital among transferred ED patients.

Reassessing surgical guidelines for papillary thyroid cancer impact on survival: Expanding indications for lobectomy.

Background: Comparisons of lobectomy versus total thyroidectomy for papillary thyroid cancer have not addressed significant threats to valid inference from observational data. The purpose of this study was to compare survival after lobectomy versus total thyroidectomy for papillary thyroid cancer while addressing bias from unmeasured confounding.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study included 84,300 patients treated with lobectomy or total thyroidectomy for papillary thyroid cancer in the National Cancer Database from 2004 to 2017.

Machine Learning Methods in Health Economics and Outcomes Research-The PALISADE Checklist: A Good Practices Report of an ISPOR Task Force.

Advances in machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence offer tremendous potential benefits to patients. Predictive analytics using ML are already widely used in healthcare operations and care delivery, but how can ML be used for health economics and outcomes research (HEOR)? To answer this question, ISPOR established an emerging good practices task force for the application of ML in HEOR. The task force identified 5 methodological areas where ML could enhance HEOR: (1) cohort selection, identifying samples with greater specificity with respect to inclusion criteria; (2) identification of independent predictors and covariates of health outcomes; (3) predictive analytics of health outcomes, including those that are high cost or life threatening; (4) causal inference through methods, such as targeted maximum likelihood estimation or double-debiased estimation-helping to produce reliable evidence more quickly; and (5) application of ML to the development of economic models to reduce structural, parameter, and sampling uncertainty in cost-effectiveness analysis.

Self-reported COVID-19 vaccination acceptance and hesitancy among autistic adults.

Identifying factors associated with COVID-19 vaccination acceptance among vulnerable groups, including autistic individuals, can increase vaccination rates and support public health. The purpose of this study was to determine differences among autistic adults who reported COVID-19 vaccination acceptance from those who did not. In this study we describe COVID-19 vaccination status and self-reported preferences among autistic adults and identify related factors.

End-of-Life Care in Patients Undergoing Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation.

Patients receiving allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) have high morbidity and mortality risk, but literature is limited on factors associated with end-of-life (EOL) care intensity. Describe EOL care in patients after allogeneic HCT and examine association of patient and clinical characteristics with intense EOL care. Retrospective chart review.

Estimating (quality-adjusted) life-year losses associated with deaths: With application to COVID-19.

Many epidemiological models of the COVID-19 pandemic have focused on preventing deaths. Questions have been raised as to the frailty of those succumbing to the COVID-19 infection. In this paper we employ standard life table methods to illustrate how the potential quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) losses associated with COVID-19 fatalities could be estimated, while adjusting for comorbidities in terms of impact on both mortality and quality of life.

60 Years after Kefauver: Household income required to buy prescription drugs in the United States and abroad.

Background: Assessing drug prices relative to income in the US compared to other Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries provides context for policymakers seeking to improve access and affordability.

Methods: Using current drug p. rice and income data, we recreate a historical analysis presented in 1960 to the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly led by Sen.

A Health Opportunity Cost Threshold for Cost-Effectiveness Analysis in the United States.

Background: Cost-effectiveness analysis is an important tool for informing treatment coverage and pricing decisions, yet no consensus exists about what threshold for the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) in dollars per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gained indicates whether treatments are likely to be cost-effective in the United States.

Objective: To estimate a U.S.

Healthcare Costs of Treating Privately Insured Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in the United States from 2004 to 2014: A Generalized Additive Modeling Approach.

Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to predict healthcare cost trajectories for patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) receiving allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (alloHCT), as a function of days since chemotherapy initiation, days relative to alloHCT, and days before death or last date of insurance eligibility (LDE). An exploratory objective examined patients with AML receiving chemotherapy only.

Methods: We used Optum's de-identified Clinformatics Data Mart Database to construct cumulative cost trajectories from chemotherapy initiation to death or LDE (through 31 December 2014) for US patients aged 20-74 years diagnosed between 1 March 2004 and 31 December 2013 (n = 187 alloHCT; n = 253 chemotherapy only).

Joint Design with Providers of Clinical Decision Support for Value-Based Advanced Shoulder Imaging.

Background: Provider orders for inappropriate advanced imaging, while rarely altering patient management, contribute enough to the strain on available health care resources, and therefore the United States Congress established the Appropriate Use Criteria Program.

Objectives: To examine whether co-designing clinical decision support (CDS) with referring providers will reduce barriers to adoption and facilitate more appropriate shoulder ultrasound (US) over magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in diagnosing Veteran shoulder pain, given similar efficacies and only 5% MRI follow-up rate after shoulder US.

Methods: We used a theory-driven, convergent parallel mixed-methods approach to prospectively (1) determine medical providers' reasons for selecting MRI over US in diagnosing shoulder pain and identify barriers to ordering US, (2) co-design CDS, informed by provider interviews, to prompt appropriate US use, and (3) assess CDS impact on shoulder imaging use.

In Reply.

This letter to the editor responds to recent comments by Strohbehn and Daugherty in .

Factors Associated with County-Level Variation in the Prescription of Statins.

Background: The American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association recommends statins for adults aged 40-75 years with a cardiovascular disease risk factor and a 10-year risk of cardiovascular events of 7.5%-19.9%.

Reimbursement, Utilization, and 1-Year Survival Post-Allogeneic Transplantation for Medicare Beneficiaries With Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Background: The economics of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (alloHCT) for older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) affects clinical practice and public policy. To assess reimbursement, utilization, and overall survival (OS) up to 1 year post-alloHCT for Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years or older with AML, a unique merged dataset of Medicare claims and national alloHCT registry data was analyzed.

Methods: Patients diagnosed with AML undergoing alloHCT from 2010 to 2011 were included for a retrospective cohort analysis with generalized linear model adjustment.

Cost-effectiveness of pembrolizumab in combination with chemotherapy versus chemotherapy and pembrolizumab monotherapy in the first-line treatment of squamous non-small-cell lung cancer in the US.

To describe the cost-effectiveness of pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy (carboplatin and paclitaxel or nab-paclitaxel; P + C) in metastatic, squamous, non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients in the US. A model comparing P + C versus C alone is developed utilizing partitioned survival analysis. Primary clinical efficacy, treatment utilization, health utility and safety data are derived from the KEYNOTE-407 trial and projected over 20 years.