Effective Antimicrobial Stewardship Strategies for Cost-effective Utilization of Telavancin for the Treatment of Patients With Hospital-acquired Bacterial Pneumonia Caused by Staphylococcus aureus.

Purpose: Clinicians and stewardship programs are challenged with positioning of novel, higher priced antibiotic agents for the treatment of clinical infections. We developed a decision-analytic model to describe costs, including drug, total treatment costs, and health care outcomes, associated with telavancin (TLV) compared with vancomycin (VAN) for patients with Staphylococcus aureus (SA) hospital-acquired bacterial pneumonia (HABP).

Methods: This decision-analytic model assessed the treatment of SA-HABP with TLV versus VAN.

Primary Care Physicians' Decision Making Regarding Initial Oncology Referral for Adolescents and Young Adults With Cancer.

Purpose: The objectives of this study were to determine whether pediatricians are more likely than other primary care physicians (PCPs) to refer newly diagnosed adolescent and young adult patients with cancer to pediatric oncological specialists, and to assess the physician and patient characteristics that affect patterns of referral.

Methods: A cross-sectional vignette survey was mailed to PCPs to examine hypothetical referral decisions as a function of physician characteristics and patient characteristics, including diagnosis, age, gender, race/ethnicity, family support, transportation, insurance, and patient preference for site of care. Pediatrician PCPs and nonpediatrician PCPs (family medicine, internal medicine, and emergency medicine physicians) practicing in North Carolina and in Washington State participated in the study.