Economic effects of priority setting in healthcare: a scoping review of current evidence.

Objectives: Study objective was to map the current literature on the economic effects of priority setting at the system level in healthcare.

Design: The study was conducted as a scoping review.

Data Sources: Scopus electronic database was searched in June 2023.

Economic burden of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) in Finland.

Objectives: Given that pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and chronic thromboembolic hypertension (CTEPH) are rare yet severe subtypes of pulmonary hypertension significantly impacting patients' lives, this study analyzed the total societal costs of these conditions in Finland.

Methods: PAH (n = 247) and CTEPH (n = 177) patients diagnosed between 2008 and 2019 were analyzed for primary and specialty outpatient visits, emergency visits, hospitalizations, home and institutional care, sick leaves, disability pensions, and drug costs for 5 years before and after diagnosis.

Results: In PAH and CTEPH, annual specialty care number of outpatient visits increased from 3.

Prognostic factors and overall survival among patients with ovarian cancer in the pre-PARP inhibitor era: the OCRWE-Finland study.

Background: Despite recent treatment advances in ovarian cancer (OC), more real-world evidence studies investigating patient outcomes are needed. OCRWE-Finland was an observational cohort study investigating OC outcomes in Finland during the pre-PARP inhibitor era.

Patients: Patients were diagnosed with OC between 2014 and 2019 in Finland.

Older adults' preferences in the utilization of digital health and social services: a qualitative analysis of responses to open-ended questions.

Background: While digital health and social services offer promising solutions, they often overlook the perspectives and needs of older adults. This study aims to comprehensively investigate the preferences of older adults regarding the use and development of digital health and social services.

Methods: The survey spanned from 19 March to 31 March 2023.

Effectiveness of Telemonitoring in Reducing Hospitalization and Associated Costs for Patients With Heart Failure in Finland: Nonrandomized Pre-Post Telemonitoring Study.

Background: Many patients with chronic heart failure (HF) experience a reduced health status, leading to readmission after hospitalization despite receiving conventional care. Telemonitoring approaches aim to improve the early detection of HF decompensations and prevent readmissions. However, knowledge about the impact of telemonitoring on preventing readmissions and related costs remains scarce.

Impact of digital services on healthcare and social welfare: An umbrella review.

Background: Digital services can be effective and cost-efficient options for treating non-communicable diseases, but generalizability is limited due to heterogeneous treatment effects. This umbrella review aims to evaluate the impact of digital services on population health, costs, and patient and healthcare professional satisfaction, and to identify facilitators and barriers to using digital services in healthcare and social welfare.

Methods: The protocol of the study was registered on the 4th of September 2022 to the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews, PROSPERO (CRD42022355635).

Contrasting healthcare costs of COPD and asthma in elderly.

Background: Caring for ageing populations creates new challenges for society. Obstructive pulmonary diseases, asthma and especially COPD, are responsible for considerable morbidity, mortality, and financial costs in the elderly. We present the change in the burden of asthma and COPD in those aged ≥60 years in Finland from 1996 to 2018.

How to extend value-based healthcare to population-based healthcare systems? Defining an outcome-based segmentation model for health authority.

Objectives: Value-based healthcare (VBHC) is considered the most promising guiding principle for a new generation of health service production. Many countries have attempted to apply VBHC to managerial and clinical decision-making. However, implementation remains in its infancy and varies between countries.

Predictive factors for prolonged sick leave in breast cancer patients treated with adjuvant therapies: a retrospective registry study.

Background: Being able to work during and after breast cancer treatments is important for patients to have a sense of normalcy, financial security, and improved quality of life, and for society due to the economic burden of sick leave. Factors influencing the length of sick leave can be sociodemographic factors, workplace adaptations, recurrences, symptoms, and type of treatment. The aim of this study is to analyse factors associated with prolonged sick leave after adjuvant breast cancer treatments.

Introducing standard patient-reported measures (PRMs) into routine maternity care: A pre-implementation qualitative study on women's perspectives in Finland.

Background: Systematically using standard patient-reported measures (PRMs) in clinical routines is trending. The International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) has developed condition-specific standard sets of patient-centred measures, one of which is the Pregnancy and Childbirth Standard (PCB) set, where standard PRMs are included. There is limited knowledge on the use of ICHOM PCB set-included PRMs (ICHOM-PCB-PRMs) in routine care.

The effect of palliative outpatient units on resource use for cancer patients in Finland.

Background: As cancer incidences are increasing, the means to provide effective palliative care (PC) are called for. There is evidence, that PC may prevent futile treatment at the end of life (EOL) thus implicating that PC decreases resource use at the EOL, however, the effects of outpatient PC units remain largely unknown. We surveyed the national use of Finnish tertiary care PC units and their effects on resource use at the EOL in real-life environments.

Trends in cost of treatment of lung cancer patients in 2014-2019 in Finland - a descriptive register study.

Aim: The aim of this descriptive study is to analyze the cost for the treatment of NSCLC and SCLC patients (2014-2019) in Finland. The primary objective is to understand recent (2014-2019) cost developments.

Methods: The study is retrospective and based on hospital register data.

Systematic review of the performance evaluation of clinicians with or without the aid of machine learning clinical decision support system.

Background: For the adoption of machine learning clinical decision support systems (ML-CDSS) it is critical to understand the performance aid of the ML-CDSS. However, it is not trivial, how the performance aid should be evaluated. To design reliable performance evaluation study, both the knowledge from the practical framework of experimental study design and the understanding of domain specific design factors are required.

COVID-19 hospitalisations and all-cause mortality by risk group in Finland.

Ever since COVID-19 was announced as a global pandemic in March 2020, healthcare systems around the world have struggled with the burden of the disease. Vaccinations and other preventive measures have decreased this burden, but severe forms of COVID-19 leading to hospitalizations and even deaths still effect certain risk groups, such as the elderly and patients with multiple comorbidities. The objective of this retrospective observational study was to identify which risk groups are at the highest risk for a severe COVID-19 infection in Finland using national registry data ranging from January 2021 to June 2022.

Effect of palliative care decisions making on hospital service use at end-of-life in patients with malignant brain tumors: a retrospective study.

Background: Palliative care (PC) improves Quality of life and reduces the symptom burden. Aggressive treatments at end of life (EOL) postpone PC. The aim of this single-center retrospective study was to evaluate the timing of the PC decision i.

The acceptability of implementing patient-reported measures in routine maternity care: A systematic review.

Introduction: Patient-reported measures (PRMs) are becoming popular as they might influence clinical decisions, help to deliver patient-centered care, and improve health care quality. However, the limited knowledge and consensus about the acceptability of implementing PRMs in maternity care hinder their widespread use in clinical practice, and evidence-based recommendations are lacking. This systematic review aims to synthesize available evidence on the acceptability of implementing PRMs in routine maternity care.

Statistical model for factors correlating with COVID-19 deaths.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruption in societies globally. Our aim is to understand, what factors were associated with the impact of the pandemic on death rates. This will help countries to better prepare for and respond in future pandemics.

Predicting Effective Adaptation to Breast Cancer to Help Women BOUNCE Back: Protocol for a Multicenter Clinical Pilot Study.

Background: Despite the continued progress of medicine, dealing with breast cancer is becoming a major socioeconomic challenge, particularly due to its increasing incidence. The ability to better manage and adapt to the entire care process depends not only on the type of cancer but also on the patient's sociodemographic and psychological characteristics as well as on the social environment in which a person lives and interacts. Therefore, it is important to understand which factors may contribute to successful adaptation to breast cancer.

Cancer-related costs should be allocated in a comparable way-benchmarking costs of cancer in Nordic countries 2012-2017.

Background: High costs of cancer, and especially the increase in treatment costs, have raised concerns about the financial sustainability of publicly funded health care systems around the world. As cancers get more prevalent with age, treatment costs are expected to keep rising with aging populations. The objective of the study is to analyze the changes in cost of cancer care broken down into separate cost components and outcomes of cancer treatment in the Nordic countries 2012-2017.

The impact of implementing patient-reported measures in routine maternity care: a systematic review.

Introduction: While there is growing interest in applying patient-reported measures (PRMs) in clinical routine, limited collective evidence of the impact of PRMs hinder their widespread use in specific contexts, such as maternity care. Our objective was to synthesize existing emperical evidence on the impact of implementing PRMs in routine maternity care.

Material And Methods: We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses guidelines (version 2020).

End-of-life care of patients with esophageal or gastric cancer: decision making and the goal of care.

Background: Overall survival (OS) with advanced esophageal or gastric cancer is poor. To avoid overly aggressive treatments at the end-of-life and assure adequate end-of-life quality, the decision to focus on symptom-centered palliative care (PC) and terminate anticancer treatments, i.e.