Valuing the Societal Impact of Medicines and Other Health Technologies: A User Guide to Current Best Practices.

This study argues that value assessment conducted from a societal perspective should rely on the Generalized Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (GCEA) framework proposed herein. Recently developed value assessment inventories - such as the Second Panel on Cost-Effectiveness's "impact inventory" and International Society of Pharmacoeconomics Outcomes Research (ISPOR) "value flower" - aimed to more comprehensively capture the benefits and costs of new health technologies from a societal perspective. Nevertheless, application of broader value elements in practice has been limited in part because quantifying these elements can be complex, but also because there have been numerous methodological advances since these value inventories have been released (e.

The impact of a customized aesthetic prosthetic leg cover on social interaction cues and attitudes in the general UK population: Two experimental studies.

Objectives: To explore the impact of an aesthetic prosthetic leg cover on attitudes toward individuals with lower-limb amputation and associated social interaction cues among the general UK population.

Study Design: Two novel experimental methodologies.

Methods: In study 1, participants (n = 188) viewed 1 of 3 images of an individual: (1) wearing a traditional stem prosthetic, (2) wearing an aesthetic leg cover, or (3) as a nonamputee.

T cell responses and clinical symptoms among infants with congenital cytomegalovirus infection.

BACKGROUNDCongenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) infection can cause developmental impairment and sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). To determine the relationship between immune responses to cCMV infection and neurologic sequelae, T cell responses were compared for their connection to clinical symptoms at birth and neurodevelopmental outcomes.METHODSThirty cCMV-infected and 15 uninfected infants were enrolled in a single-center prospective observational case-control study.

CHRONOS-4: phase 3 study of copanlisib plus rituximab-based immunochemotherapy in relapsed indolent B-cell lymphoma.

Copanlisib, a pan-class I phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor with predominant activity against the α and δ isoforms, previously demonstrated durable responses as monotherapy and improved progression-free survival (PFS) in combination with rituximab in patients with relapsed indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (iNHL). CHRONOS-4 was a phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to investigate the efficacy and safety of copanlisib in combination with standard immunochemotherapy in patients with relapsed iNHL. Patients (n = 524) were randomized (1:1) to copanlisib (60 mg IV) plus immunochemotherapy (rituximab and bendamustine [R-B] or placebo plus R-B).

Cranberry Juice, Cranberry Tablets, or Liquid Therapies for Urinary Tract Infection: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis.

Background And Objective: With over 50% of women suffering from at least one episode of urinary tract infection (UTI) each year and an increasing prevalence of antimicrobial resistance, efforts need to be made to clearly identify the evidence supporting potential non-drug interventions. This study aims to compare the effects of cranberry juice, cranberry tablets, and increased liquids for the management of UTIs.

Methods: PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane CENTRAL were searched for randomised controlled trials.

Three Pillars of Support for Orphan Drug Programs: Individual Valuations, Societal Valuations, and Anonymous Altruism.

Objectives: To identify and describe potential societal and individual sources of support for orphan drug programs.

Methods: The Generalized Risk-Adjusted Cost-Effectiveness method shows that acute illness and disability severity increase individuals' willingness to pay for health gains. We develop a social welfare function (SWF) that incorporates individuals' own values, combined with politically or ethically determined weights.

Profiling cells with DELs: Small molecule fingerprinting of cell surfaces.

DNA-encoded small molecule library technology has recently emerged as a new paradigm for identifying ligands against drug targets. To date, it has been used to identify ligands against targets that are soluble or overexpressed on cell surfaces. Here, we report applying cell-based selection methods to profile surfaces of mouse C2C12 myoblasts and myotube cells in an unbiased, target agnostic manner.

Values Beyond "Health" in Budget-Constrained Healthcare Systems.

Objectives: Most current methods to value healthcare treatments only incorporate measures such as quality-adjusted life-years, combining gains in health-related quality of life and life expectancy in specific ways. Failure of these methods to recognize other dimensions of value has led to calls for methods to include additional values that are associated with the healthcare treatments but not captured directly by quality-adjusted life-years. This article seeks to provide methodologically sound ways to incorporate additional health-related outcomes, focusing on budget-constrained healthcare systems, in which using standard welfare economics methods are often eschewed.

Differential impacts of healthy cognitive aging on directed and random exploration.

Deciding whether to explore unknown opportunities or exploit well-known options is a ubiquitous part of our everyday lives. Extensive work in college students suggests that young people make explore-exploit decisions using a mixture of information seeking and random behavioral variability. Whether, and to what extent, older adults use the same strategies is unknown.

Risk preferences over health: Empirical estimates and implications for medical decision-making.

Mainstream health economic theory implies that an expected gain in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) produces the same value for consumers, regardless of baseline health. Several strands of recent research call this implication into question. Generalized Risk-Adjusted Cost-Effectiveness (GRACE) demonstrates theoretically that baseline health status influences value, so long as consumers are not risk-neutral over health.

Place Attachment and Aging in Place: Preferences and Disruptions.

This paper examines the links between place attachment and older persons' preferences to age in place, and factors that disrupt these preferences. We use data from the 2001-2021 Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey and panel-data modelling to confirm strong associations between several place attachment dimensions and aging-in-place preferences. Strong ties to children, strong social capital, residence in social housing, homeownership status, housing wealth, and home and neighborhood satisfaction are all positively linked to a stronger preference to age in place.

Ageing influences detrusor contractions to prostaglandin, angiotensin, histamine and 5-HT (serotonin), independent to the Rho kinase and extracellular calcium pathways.

Ageing is associated with deteriorating urinary bladder function and an increasing prevalence of disorders such as underactive bladder. There are suggestions that G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) second messenger pathways are altered during ageing, rather than the receptor proteins themselves. The aim of this study was to identify age-related variations in GPCR activation systems in urinary bladder smooth muscle (detrusor).

Expression of human thrombomodulin by GalTKO.hCD46 pigs modulates coagulation cascade activation by endothelial cells and during ex vivo lung perfusion with human blood.

Thrombomodulin is important for the production of activated protein C (APC), a molecule with significant regulatory roles in coagulation and inflammation. To address known molecular incompatibilities between pig thrombomodulin and human thrombin that affect the conversion of protein C into APC, GalTKO.hCD46 pigs have been genetically modified to express human thrombomodulin (hTBM).

Insights Into Patients Questions Over Bunion Treatments: A Google Study.

Background: Approximately 1 in 4 adults will develop hallux valgus (HV). Up to 80% of adult Internet users reference online sources for health-related information. Overall, with the high prevalence of HV combined with the numerous treatment options, we believe patients are likely turning to Internet search engines for questions relevant to HV.

Don't forget the veggies! Identifying and addressing a lack of vegetable education in physiology.

Ninety-five percent of Westerners do not consume the recommended daily vegetable intake, exacerbating the incidence of obesity, malnutrition, and nutritional deficiencies such as fiber. This article reviews the literature from PubMed, ERIC, and Web of Science, as well as Internet sites and government resources, to identify what should be considered important inclusions relating to dietary vegetable (including legumes and pulses) intake content in university physiology subjects. The primary aim is to advance the competency relating to good nutrition knowledge for future health professionals to enable them to guide and counsel patients and clients toward better health.

On the (Near) Equivalence of Welfarist and Extra-Welfarist Methods to Value Healthcare With Implications for Assessing Equity.

Objectives: While welfarist economics (WE) methods rely wholly on individuals' valuations, extra-welfarist (EW) methods seek alternative measures of value. Major reviews of the EW literature conclude that EW studies almost universally replace "utility" with "health" as the maximand. This analysis seeks to understand what conclusions are necessary and sufficient to make EW and WE methods concurrent and discusses implications for measuring social value.

Acute kidney injury in hypoplastic left heart syndrome patients following the comprehensive stage two palliation.

Background: An alternative surgical approach for hypoplastic left heart syndrome is the Hybrid pathway, which delays the risk of acute kidney injury outside of the newborn period. We sought to determine the incidence, and associated morbidity, of acute kidney injury after the comprehensive stage 2 and the cumulative incidence after the first two operations in the Hybrid pathway.

Design: A single centre, retrospective study was conducted of hypoplastic left heart patients completing the second-stage palliation in the Hybrid pathway from 2009 to 2018.

Increased human complement pathway regulatory protein gene dose is associated with increased endothelial expression and prolonged survival during ex-vivo perfusion of GTKO pig lungs with human blood.

Introduction: Expression of human complement pathway regulatory proteins (hCPRP's) such as CD46 or CD55 has been associated with improved survival of pig organ xenografts in multiple different models. Here we evaluate the hypothesis that an increased human CD46 gene dose, through homozygosity or additional expression of a second hCPRP, is associated with increased protein expression and with improved protection from injury when GTKO lung xenografts are perfused with human blood.

Methods: Twenty three GTKO lungs heterozygous for human CD46 (GTKO.

Reimagining Patient Data Access for Researchers.

Objectives: Widespread use of electronic health records (EHRs) now makes it feasible to expand beyond health insurance claims data to include full EHR data for health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) studies. We seek to develop ways to maximize researcher access to such data while strongly protecting patients' privacy rights.

Methods: We analyzed alternative organizational structures and intellectual property rights assignments as they now exist and compared these with structures and intellectual property rights assignments that would maximize access to data for HEOR studies and minimize transactions costs.

Medical students as advocates for a healthy planet and healthy people: Designing an assessment that prepares learners to take action on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Purpose: Health professionals are being called on to be advocates for the planet to ensure health and well-being for current and future generations. Clean air, flourishing ecosystems, a stable climate, and nutritious food are required for health and well-being. Considering the deteriorating state of our natural environment, today's health professionals need to be advocates for a healthy planet.

HTLV-1 Hbz protein, but not hbz mRNA secondary structure, is critical for viral persistence and disease development.

Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is the etiologic cause of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) and encodes a viral oncoprotein (Hbz) that is consistently expressed in asymptomatic carriers and ATL patients, suggesting its importance in the development and maintenance of HTLV-1 leukemic cells. Our previous work found Hbz protein is dispensable for virus-mediated T-cell immortalization but enhances viral persistence. We and others have also shown that hbz mRNA promotes T-cell proliferation.

Production of Humanized Mice through Stem Cell Transfer.

The development of "humanized" mice has become a prominent tool for translational animal studies of human diseases. Immunodeficient mice can be humanized by injections of human umbilical cord stem cells. The engraftment of these cells and their development into human lymphocytes has been made possible by the development of novel severely immunodeficient mouse strains.