Colombian Health System on its Way to Improve Allocation Efficiency-Transition from a Health Sector Reform to the Settlement of an HTA Agency.

Over the past 20 years, Colombia has invested major efforts in ensuring universal health care access to its citizens while facing epidemiological transition and demographic changes. The country, as any other region in the world, is challenged by financial constraints and market pressures for entry of new and frequently costly technologies. After the 1993 health sector reform, Colombian citizens are entitled to health care access via mandatory health insurance through a benefits plan.

Prioritization strategies in clinical practice guidelines development: a pilot study.

Objective: Few methodological studies address the prioritization of clinical topics for the development of Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs). The aim of this study was to validate a methodology for Priority Determination of Topics (PDT) of CPGs.

Methods And Results: Firstly, we developed an instrument for PDT with 41 criteria that were grouped under 10 domains, based on a comprehensive systematic search.

Chemoprophylaxis in contacts of patients with leprosy: systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: To identify and summarize randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that assessed the effectiveness of chemoprophylaxis to prevent leprosy in contacts of patients newly diagnosed with the disease.

Methods: All studies were extracted from Medline (PubMed 1966 to November 2008), the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (number 3 2008), LILACS (1982 to November 2008), and Scirus (November 2008). Manual searches and searches of crossed references of assessed articles were also done.