Economic Modeling of Heart Failure Telehealth Programs: When Do They Become Cost Saving?

Telehealth programs for congestive heart failure have been shown to be clinically effective. This study assesses clinical and economic consequences of providing telehealth programs for CHF patients. A Markov model was developed and presented in the context of a home-based telehealth program on CHF.

Cost-effectiveness of navigated radiofrequency ablation for hepatocellular carcinoma in China.

Objectives: Real-time virtual sonography (RVS) is a promising navigation technique for percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (RFA) treatment, especially in ablating nodules poorly visualized on conventional ultrasonography (US). However, its cost-effectiveness has not been established. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of RVS navigated RFA (RVS-RFA) relative to US guided RFA (US-RFA) in patients with small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in China, from the modified societal perspective.

Meta-analysis and meta-regression of telehealth programmes for patients with chronic heart failure.

To assess the effectiveness of telehealth used for chronic heart failure (CHF) patients, we searched for peer-reviewed, randomized controlled trials published between 2001 and 2012. A total of 33 studies met the inclusion criteria. There were 26 studies (79%) which concerned tele-monitoring and 7 (21%) which concerned case management or nurse administered telephone-based management.

Economic assessment of home-based COPD management programs.

Home-based exacerbation management programs have been proposed as an approach to reducing the clinical and financial burden of COPD. We demonstrate a framework to evaluate such programs in order to guide program design and performance decisions towards optimizing cost and clinical outcomes. This study models the impact of hypothetical exacerbation management programs through probabilistic Markov simulations.

Automatic misalignment correction in neuroimages using surface symmetry priors.

Many brain imaging procedures require the careful alignment of different sets of images obtained in the same individual. The available automatic methods for brain alignment are susceptible to improvement. This paper discusses briefly a new automatic method to reinstall the tilted orientation of head images, using surface symmetry as a prior.

Employing symmetry features for automatic misalignment correction in neuroimages.

A novel method to automatically compute the symmetry plane and to correct the 3D orientation of neuro-images is presented. In acquisition of neuroimaging scans, the lack of perfect alignment of a patient's head makes it challenging to evaluate brain images. By deploying a shape-based criterion, the symmetry plane is defined as a plane that best matches external surface points on one side of the head, with their counterparts on the other side.

Quantitative evaluation for accumulative calibration error and video-CT registration errors in electromagnetic-tracked endoscopy.

Purpose: Electromagnetic (EM)-guided endoscopy has demonstrated its value in minimally invasive interventions. Accuracy evaluation of the system is of paramount importance to clinical applications. Previously, a number of researchers have reported the results of calibrating the EM-guided endoscope; however, the accumulated errors of an integrated system, which ultimately reflect intra-operative performance, have not been characterized.

Symmetry and asymmetry analysis and its implications to computer-aided diagnosis: A review of the literature.

Although clinicians have long sought to integrate computer-aided diagnostic (CAD) systems into routine clinical practice, it has proven to be extremely difficult to perform fully automated algorithmic analyses on lesions, based solely on the information contained in images. To increase the utility of computerized tools, it would be intuitive to incorporate anatomical and pathological knowledge and heuristics to help the system draw diagnostic inferences. In neuro-imaging applications, for example, one way to perform this knowledge integration is to uncover symmetry/asymmetry information from the corresponding regions of the head and to explore its implication to positive clinical findings.

Asymmetry analysis in rodent cerebral ischemia models.

Rationale And Objectives: An automated method for identification and segmentation of acute/subacute ischemic stroke, using the inherent bi-fold symmetry in brain images, is presented. An accurate and automated method for localization of acute ischemic stroke could provide physicians with a mechanism for early detection and potentially faster delivery of effective stroke therapy.

Materials And Methods: Segmentation of ischemic stroke was performed on magnetic resonance (MR) images of subacute rodent cerebral ischemia.