Health Economists on Involving Patients in Modeling: Potential Benefits, Harms, and Variables of Interest.

Background: Patient involvement in health economics modeling has been advocated on numerous grounds, including as a way to better manage social and ethical value judgments in the modeling process. However, some have pointed to potential risks and variables that could influence the overall benefit of involvement. To inform future research, there is a need to generate knowledge on potential benefits, harms, and variables relevant to patient involvement in health economics modeling.

Social, ethical, and other value judgments in health economics modelling.

Modelling is a major method of inquiry in health economics. In other modelling-intensive fields, such as climate science, recent scholarship has described how social and ethical values influence model development. However, no similar work has been done in health economics.

eMental health experiences and expectations: a survey of youths' Web-based resource preferences in Canada.

Background: Due to the high prevalence of psychological disorders and the lack of access to care among Canadian youth, the development of accessible services is increasingly important. eMental Health is an expanding field that may help to meet this need through the provision of mental health care using technology.

Objective: The primary goals of the study are to explore youth experiences with traditional and online mental health resources, and to investigate youth expectations for mental health websites.

Stimulants and Cannabis Use Among a Marginalized Population in British Columbia, Canada: Role of Trauma and Incarceration.

High rates of substance use, especially cannabis and stimulant use, have been associated with homelessness, exposure to trauma, and involvement with the criminal justice system. This study explored differences in substance use (cannabis vs. stimulants) and associations with trauma and incarceration among a homeless population.

Optimal timing of influenza vaccination in patients with human immunodeficiency virus: a Markov cohort model based on serial study participant hemoagglutination inhibition titers.

Background: Seasonal influenza vaccination offers one of the best population-level protections against influenza-like illness (ILI). For most people, a single dose prior to the flu season offers adequate immunogenicity. HIV+ patients, however, tend to exhibit a shorter period of clinical protection, and therefore may not retain immunogenicity for the entire season.

Research on a vulnerable neighborhood-the vancouver downtown eastside from 2001 to 2011.

The Downtown Eastside (DTES) of Vancouver is the subject of considerable research due to high rates of drug use, poverty, crime, infectious disease, and mental illness. This paper first presents a brief background to the DTES and then presents a survey of literature addressing the issues in this area from 2001 to 2011. The literature surveyed includes a range of publications such as those from peer-reviewed journals and the grey literature of reports and dissertations.