Scientific evaluation and pricing of medical devices and associated procedures in France.

Medical devices are many and various, ranging from tongue spatulas to implantable or invasive devices and imaging machines; their lifetimes are short, between 18 months and 5 years, due to incessant incremental innovation; and they are operator-dependent: in general, the clinical user performs a fitting procedure (hip implant or pacemaker), a therapeutic procedure using a non-implantable invasive device (arrhythmic site ablation probe, angioplasty balloon, extension spondyloplasty system, etc.) or follow-up of an active implanted device (long-term follow-up of an implanted cardiac defibrillator or of a deep brain stimulator in Parkinson's patients). A round-table held during the XXVIII(th) Giens Workshops meeting focused on the methodology of scientific evaluation of medical devices and the associated procedures with a view to their pricing and financing by the French National Health Insurance system.

Clinical and economic impact of malnutrition per se on the postoperative course of colorectal cancer patients.

Background & Aims: To assess the medico-economic impact of malnutrition in patients who underwent surgery for colorectal cancer.

Methods: We performed post-hoc analyses of data from the Alves et al. prospective study.

[Cost of dialysis in France].

The provision of care for patients with end-stage chronic renal failure is an important medical and economic challenge for the Health Insurance. Previous studies have shown a lower cost for home dialysis. More recently, studies have confirmed identical short-term survival rates between haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis.