Physician preference items: what factors matter to surgeons? Does the vendor matter?

Background: The USA devotes roughly $200 billion (6%) of annual national health expenditures to medical devices. A substantial proportion of this spending occurs during orthopedic (eg, hip and knee) arthroplasties - two high-volume hospital procedures. The implants used in these procedures are commonly known as physician preference items (PPIs), reflecting the physician's choice of implant and vendor used.

Implant vendors and hospitals: competing influences over product choice by orthopedic surgeons.

Background: Vendors of hip and knee implants court orthopedic surgeons to adopt their products. Hospitals, which have to pay for these products, now court the same surgeons to help reduce the number of vendors and contain implant costs.

Purposes: This study measures the surgeon's perceived alignment of interests with both vendors and hospitals and gauges surgeons' exposure and receptivity to hospital cost-containment efforts.

Market entry and exit by biotech and device companies funded by venture capital.

Start-up companies in the biotechnology and medical device sectors are important sources of health care innovation. This paper describes the role of venture capital in supporting these companies and charts the growth in venture capital financial support. The paper then uses longitudinal data to describe market entry and exit by these companies.

Participation of patients 65 years of age or older in cancer clinical trials.

Purpose: Although 61% of new cases of cancer occur among the elderly, recent studies indicate that the elderly comprise only 25% of participants in cancer clinical trials. Further investigation into the reasons for low elderly participation is warranted. Our objective was to evaluate the participation of the elderly in clinical trials sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and assess the impact of protocol exclusion criteria on elderly participation.