Economic news making the headlines in 1996
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Economic news making theheadllnes in 1996
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n this issue, PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News brings you the highlights of the topics that made the news in 1996. In terms of health economic concepts, disease management and practice guidelines were most significant in terms of their evolution and expansion. In terms of therapeutic areas, new directions in HIV infection and AIDS, cardiovascular disease and gastrointestinal disease will have significant economic implications. And one of the most transparent messages for international healthcare systems in 1996 was the need to move to a primary-care focus.
Practice guidelines discussed in PlulrmacoEconomics & Outcomes News in 1996 included those for screening for high cholesterol, treatment for asthma. heart failure, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, hypertension, acute myocardial infarction, obesity, osteoporosis and unstable angina. and eradication of Helicobacter pylori infection.
Which guidelines were implemented? In October 1996, new European guidelines for the eradication of H. pylori infection were introduced by the European Helicobacter Pylori Study Group (EHPSG).88:3-4* The guidelines recommend 1 week's proton pump inhibitor-based triple therapy for all patients with peptic ulcer disease and H. pylori infection. The EHPSG believes that widespread implementation of these guidelines by primary-care physicians and gastroenterologists has the potential to eliminate peptic ulcer disease in 90% of patients in whom H. pylori is eradicated, as well as generate significant cost savings. This view is supported by the findings of the Gastrointestinal Utilization Trial, which showed that healthcare costs can be significantly reduced by eradicating H. pylori in patients with duodenal ulcers, compared with the costs of providing antisecretory therapy only.88:3-4
First obesity treatment guidelines The first guidelines for the treatment of obesity were released in November 1996 by the American Obesity Association and Shape Up America 89:lJ The recommendations suggest that patients with the greatest possible obesity-related health risks should receive therapy with a combination of management options, including surgery. The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network Working Party on Obesity has also implemented practice guidelines, which advocate the long-term use of appetite suppressants and increased use of surgery in selected cases. 89:lJ
mv infection guidelines updated In mid-1996, new treatment guidelines for HIV infection were introduced that reflected the important therapeutic advances that had occurred in the 18 months previously. 72: 3The guidelines are not precise algorithms, but aim to provide enough information to permit rational decisions for suitable regimens and strategies for the management of HIV infection in 1996, said the international panel of researchers who developed the guidelines.
* Re/erem::es to the appropriate source anicle appear in the text as issue number, then page number.
PhannacoEconomics & Ou1cornes News 11 Jan 1997 No. 114
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