ETHICS EVALUATION REVEALING DECISION-MAKER MOTIVES: A CASE OF NEONATAL SCREENING.

Objectives: This paper aims to describe the added value of combining cost-effectiveness and ethical evaluations when the preferences of the decision maker toward cost-effectiveness evaluation outcomes are not known, with the French national neonatal screening of cystic fibrosis (CF) as a case-study.

Methods: A cost-effectiveness analysis comparing four CF neonatal screening strategies, with or without DNA testing, was performed. Ethical positions toward their outcomes were described.

An internet-based method to elicit experts' beliefs for Bayesian priors: a case study in intracranial stent evaluation.

Rationale: Bayesian methods provide an interesting approach to assessing an implantable medical device (IMD) that has evolved through successive versions because they allow for explicit incorporation of prior knowledge into the analysis. However, the literature is sparse on the feasibility and reliability of elicitation in cases where expert beliefs are used to form priors.

Objectives: To develop an Internet-based method for eliciting experts' beliefs about the success rate of an intracranial stenting procedure and to assess their impact on the estimated benefit of the latest version.

Bayesian hierarchical meta-analysis model for medical device evaluation: application to intracranial stents.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to propose a statistical model that takes into account clinical data on earlier versions when evaluating the latest version of an implantable medical device (IMD).

Methods: We compared the performances of a bayesian three-level hierarchical meta-analysis model with those of a bayesian random-effects model through a simulation study. Posterior mean estimates of the success rate for each IMD version were computed as well as the probability that the latest version improved in effectiveness.

Bayesian statistical method was underused despite its advantages in the assessment of implantable medical devices.

Objective: We sought to review the use of Bayesian methods in the evaluation of the effectiveness of implantable medical devices (IMDs) to identify which areas of research need to be further investigated to improve IMD assessment.

Study Design And Setting: Relevant studies were identified by searching PubMed and the Food and Drug Administration Web site. Data were extracted independently by the two authors.

Applicability and generalisability of published results of randomised controlled trials and non-randomised studies evaluating four orthopaedic procedures: methodological systematic review.

Objective: To compare the reporting of essential applicability data from randomised controlled trials and non-randomised studies evaluating four new orthopaedic surgical procedures.

Data Sources: Medline and the Cochrane central register of controlled trials.

Study Selection: All articles of comparative studies assessing total hip or knee arthroplasty carried out by a minimally invasive approach or computer assisted navigation system.