The Costs of Digital Health Interventions to Improve Immunization Data in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Multicountry Mixed Methods Study.

Background: Digital health interventions, such as electronic immunization registries (eIRs) and electronic logistic management information systems (eLMIS), have the potential to significantly improve immunization data management and vaccine logistics in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Despite their growing adoption, there is limited evidence of the financial and economic costs associated with their implementation compared to traditional paper-based systems.

Objectives: We aimed to measure the costs of implementing eIR and eLMIS systems in LMICs and to estimate their economic costs as compared to the previous paper-based registries.

Cost of implementing CAR-T activity and managing CAR-T patients: an exploratory study.

Background: Chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-T) represent an innovation but raise issues for healthcare payers because of the uncertainty on impact at market launch, high cost and important organisational impact. The literature has focused on their assessment, appraisal and market access solutions. No evidence on the costs sustained to implement CAR-T is available and a few studies reported the cost of the CAR-T clinical pathway, including the activities that are remunerated through inpatient or outpatient fee-for-service/episode.

Assessment of a SARS-CoV-2 population-wide rapid antigen testing in Italy: a modeling and economic analysis study.

Background: This study aimed to compare the cost-effectiveness of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mass testing, carried out in November 2020 in the Italian Bolzano/Südtirol province, to scenarios without mass testing in terms of hospitalizations averted and quality-adjusted life-year (QALYs) saved.

Methods: We applied branching processes to estimate the effective reproduction number (Rt) and model scenarios with and without mass testing, assuming Rt = 0.9 and Rt = 0.

Geographical variation in the use of private health insurance in a predominantly publicly-funded system.

We provide evidence of geographical variations in the use of private health insurance (PHI) in Italy. Our study offers an original contribution, using a 2016 dataset on the use of PHI amongst a population of more than 200,000 employees of a major company. The average claim per enrolee was €925, representing approximately 50% of public health expenditure per capita, primarily for dental care (27.

The economic impact of compassionate use of medicines.

Background: Compassionate use programs (CUP) for medicines respond to the ethical imperative of providing access to medicines before marketing approval to patients not recruited in trials. The economic impact of clinical trials has previously been investigated. No evidence on the net economic benefit of CUP exists.

Reflections on the Importance of Cost of Illness Analysis in Rare Diseases: A Proposal.

In the field of rare diseases (RDs), the evidence standard is often lower than that required by health technology assessment (HTA) and payer authorities. In this commentary, we propose that appropriate economic evaluation for rare disease treatments should be initially informed by cost-of-illness (COI) studies conducted using a societal perspective. Such an approach contributes to improving countries' understanding of RDs in their entirety as societal and not merely clinical, or product-specific issues.

Social Economic Costs, Health-Related Quality of Life and Disability in Patients with Cri Du Chat Syndrome.

: Cri du Chat syndrome (CdC) is a rare disease caused by the deletion on the short arm of the chromosome 5, with an incidence of 1:15,000 to 1:50,000 live-born infants. No study at international level has assessed the costs, Quality of Life (QoL) and Disability through standardized quantitative tools. The aim is to estimate economic costs related to CdC from a societal perspective, to assess the QoL and Disability in patients with CdC along with their caregivers in Italy.

Factors influencing adherence to adjuvant endocrine therapy in breast cancer-treated women: using real-world data to inform a switch from acute to chronic disease management.

Purpose: Adjuvant endocrine therapy (AET) for ≥ 5 years is generally recommended for women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer to reduce cancer recurrence/mortality; however, adherence can be suboptimal. We tested determinants of AET adherence using patient characteristics, treatment pathways, AET initiation timing, and multiple healthcare facility use. An underlying objective was to explore how oncological pathways mirror chronic disease management to monitor adherence and target improvement interventions using administrative datasets.

Patient access to oral nutritional supplements: Which policies count?

Objectives: Oral nutritional supplements (ONS) represent a cost-effective method for treating malnutrition. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of public policies on patient access to ONS, using the Italian regionalized health care system as a case study, subsequently compared with the centralized British National Health Service.

Methods: Regional policies in the nine largest Italian regions and British policies were gathered through a literature review; interviews with officers responsible for clinical nutrition policies at the regional level in Italy were also conducted.

Health care costs of influenza-related episodes in high income countries: A systematic review.

Introduction: This study systematically reviews costing studies of seasonal influenza-like illness (ILI) in high-income countries. Existing reviews on the economic impact of ILI do not report information on drug consumption and its costs, nor do they provide data on the overall cost per episode.

Methods: The PRISMA-P checklist was used to design the research protocol.

Social/economic costs and health-related quality of life in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy in Europe.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the economic burden from a societal perspective and the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in Europe.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of patients with DMD from Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the UK. Data on demographic characteristics, healthcare resource utilization, informal care, labor productivity losses, and HRQOL were collected from the questionnaires completed by patients or their caregivers.

The social burden and quality of life of patients with haemophilia in Italy.

Background: In Italy, the project on the social burden and quality of life (QoL) of patients with haemophilia investigates costs from a society perspective and provides an overview of their quality of life. Moreover, as life expectancy increased in recent years along with new treatment strategies implemented in the last decades, it analyses trends of costs other than drugs simulating impacts during patient whole life.

Material And Methods: We ran a web-based cross-sectional survey supported by the Italian Federation of Haemophilia Societies in recruiting patients with haemophilia and their caregivers.

Stakeholders involvement by HTA Organisations: why is so different?

Objective: To investigate stakeholder involvement by Health Technology Assessment Organisations (HTAOs) in France, Spain, England and Wales, Germany, Sweden, and The Netherlands and to examine whether this involvement depends on (i) the administrative tradition and the relevant conception of the relationship between state and society (contractarian and corporative vs. organic), (ii) the general structure of the healthcare system (HCS) (Bismarckian vs. Beveridgian system), and (iii) the role of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and HTAOs in the HCS.