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Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

BioPrEP , a regional, process-based approach for assessment of land with high conservation value for Bush Heritage Australia

ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT & RESTORATION, Issue 1 2010
Brendan Mackey
Summary, A framework is presented for terrestrial conservation assessment that has been developed for Bush Heritage, an Australian non-profit organisation that manages land of outstanding conservation value through acquisition or working in partnership with other landowners. The framework is called Biodiversity Prediction using Ecological Processes and comprises seven conservation goals, with a set of candidate criteria and indicators for each goal. Particular emphasis is given to criteria that relate to habitat quality in addition to the more conventional focus on land quantity. The MCAS-S graphic user interface is used to help analyse the indicators and visualise the results in a transparent way that assists the decision-making process. The interface also allows indicators to be weighted differently, which among other things, allows analyses to reflect inter-regional differences in what represents high quality land. The framework was tested in a case study region (the Woodland region of south-eastern Australia), and the results reveal land that is potentially a priority for conservation investments. While the framework and case study results are indicative, and further analyses are required before they can be considered operational, the approach has potential application to other organisations in the private conservation sector. [source]

Quality-adjusted life years: how useful in medico economic studies

FUNDAMENTAL & CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY, Issue 6 2005
Carmen A. Brauer
Abstract Cost-effectiveness analysis has evolved as a practical response to the need to allocate limited resources for health care. It can be used to compare interventions whose effects on health are different if the measure of effectiveness captures all the important health dimensions of the effects of the interventions. Using the quality-adjusted life year (QALY) as the unit of effectiveness attempts to approach this ideal and is currently the approach recommended by many consensus groups. Conventional QALYs represent time spend in a series of "quality-weighted" health states, where the quality weights reflect the desirability of living in the state. Many challenges arise when preferences are incorporated into an economic analysis. The purpose of this paper is to highlight some of the issues surrounding the use of QALYs and to encourage researchers to present their methodology in a clear and transparent way. [source]

Whither trial-based economic evaluation for health care decision making?

HEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 7 2006
Mark J. Sculpher
Abstract The randomised controlled trial (RCT) has developed a central role in applied cost-effectiveness studies in health care as the vehicle for analysis. This paper considers the role of trial-based economic evaluation in this era of explicit decision making. It is argued that any framework for economic analysis can only be judged insofar as it can inform two key decisions and be consistent with the objectives of a health care system subject to its resource constraints. The two decisions are, firstly, whether to adopt a health technology given existing evidence and, secondly, an assessment of whether more evidence is required to support this decision in the future. It is argued that a framework of economic analysis is needed which can estimate costs and effects, based on all the available evidence, relating to the full range of possible alternative interventions and clinical strategies, over an appropriate time horizon and for specific patient groups. It must also enable the accumulated evidence to be synthesised in an explicit and transparent way in order to fully represent the decision uncertainty. These requirements suggest that, in most circumstances, the use of a single RCT as a vehicle for economic analysis will be an inadequate and partial basis for decision making. It is argued that RCT evidence, with or without economic content, should be viewed as simply one of the sources of evidence, which must be placed in a broader framework of evidence synthesis and decision analysis. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Optimal Monetary Policy in a Model with Agency Costs

JOURNAL OF MONEY, CREDIT AND BANKING, Issue 2010
CHARLES T. CARLSTROM
optimal monetary policy; agency costs This paper integrates a fully explicit model of agency costs into an otherwise standard Dynamic New Keynesian model in a particularly transparent way. A principal result is the characterization of agency costs as endogenous markup shocks in an output-gap version of the Phillips curve. The model's utility-based welfare criterion is derived explicitly and includes a measure of credit market tightness that we interpret as a risk premium. The paper also fully characterizes optimal monetary policy and provides conditions under which zero inflation is the optimal policy. Finally, optimal policy can be expressed as an inflation targeting criterion that (depending upon parameter values) can be either forward or backward looking. [source]