Potential impact and cost-effectiveness analysis of rotavirus vaccination of children in Israel.

Background: Rotavirus is a common cause of acute gastroenteritis in children under 5 years of age. Two effective vaccines against rotavirus gastroenteritis were recently licensed in many countries throughout the world. The study aimed to investigate the cost effectiveness of vaccinating an Israeli birth cohort of 143 500 children.

Impact of new medical technologies on health expenditures in Israel 2000-07.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to estimate the impact of new medical technologies on public healthcare expenditures in Israel over the period 2000-07.

Methods: For each year, government estimates for the costs of new technologies recommended as high-priority for public funding were summarized. The ratio of projected costs of these technologies to total public healthcare expenditures was calculated and compared with actual governmental budget allocations for new technologies.

[Threshold values for cost-effectiveness ratio and public funding of medical technologies].

Rising healthcare costs, together with the rapid emergence of new and expensive medical technologies, have facilitated the use of economic analyses for making coverage decisions. The use of cost-effectiveness studies requires an external criterion (threshold value) for the cost-effectiveness ratio, below which funding would be recommended. Although such a threshold reflects the societal value of a full-quality life-year, currently accepted thresholds have been determined arbitrarily.

Year 2006 update of the Israel National List of Health Services.

In Israel, updating of the National List of Health Services is performed on a yearly basis by means of a systematic and structured mechanism for almost a decade. The existence of such a mechanism is vital for keeping medicine up to date, since many innovative and breakthrough medical technologies continuously and frequently evolve. The 2006 update is unique in several aspects, relating both to the mechanism and to the decision-making process.