While we found relatively good st and ards of reporting the study ’s question , population , interventions , comparators and conclusions , the overall reporting was poor , and evidence of unfamiliarity with international guidelines was evident ( i.e. absence of incremental analysis , of discounting long-term costs and effects ) .
Analysis or description of place-to-place variability was infrequent .
Use and acceptance of health economic evaluations ( HEEs ) has been much greater in developed than in developing nations .
Nevertheless , while developing countries lag behind in the development of HEE methods , they could benefit from the progress made in other countries and concentrate on ways in which existing methods can be used or would need to be modified to fulfill their specific needs .
HEEs , as context -specific tools , are not easily generalizable from setting to setting .
Existing studies regarding generalizability and transferability of HEEs have primarily been conducted in developed countries .
Therefore , a legitimate question for policy makers in Latin America and the Caribbean region ( LAC ) is to what extent HEEs conducted in industrialized economies and in LAC are generalizable to LAC ( trans-regional ) and to other LAC countries ( intra-regional ) , respectively .
Safety and cost-effectiveness of early discharge after primary angioplasty in low risk patients with acute myocardial infarction. PAMI-II Investigators. Primary Angioplasty in Myocardial Infarction.
OBJECTIVES The second Primary Angioplasty in Myocardial Infa rct ion ( PAMI-II ) study evaluated the hypothesis that primary percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty ( PTCA ) , with subsequent discharge from the hospital 3 days later , is safe and cost-effective in low risk patients . BACKGROUND In low risk patients with myocardial infa rct ion ( MI ) , few data exist regarding the need for intensive care and noninvasive testing or the appropriate length of hospital stay . METHODS Patients with acute MI underwent emergency catheterization with primary PTCA  when appropriate . Low risk patients ( age < 70 years , left ventricular ejection fraction > 45 % , one- or two-vessel disease , successful PTCA , no persistent arrhythmias ) were r and omized to receive accelerated care ( admission to a nonintensive care unit and day 3 hospital discharge without noninvasive testing [ n = 237 ] or traditional care [ n = 234 ] ) . RESULTS Patients who received accelerated care had similar in-hospital outcomes but were discharged 3 days earlier ( 4.2+/-2.3 vs. 7.1+/-4.7 days , p = 0.0001 ) and had lower hospital costs ( $ 9,658+/-5,287 vs. $ 11,604+/-6,125 p = 0.002 ) than the patients who received traditional care . At 6 months , accelerated and traditional care groups had a similar rate of mortality ( 0.8 % vs. 0.4 % , p = 1.00 ) , unstable ischemia ( 10.1 % vs. 12.0 % , p = 0.52 ) , reinfa rct ion ( 0.8 % vs. 0.4 % , p = 1.00 ) , stroke ( 0.4 % vs. 2.6 % , p = 0.07 ) , congestive heart failure ( 4.6 % vs. 4.3 % , p = 0.85 ) or their combined occurrence ( 15.2 % vs. 17.5 % , p = 0.49 ) . The study was design ed to detect a 10 % difference in event rates ; at 6 months , only a 2.3 % difference was measured between groups , indicating an actual power of 0.19 . CONCLUSIONS Early identification of low risk patients with MI allowed safe omission of the intensive care phase and noninvasive testing , and a day 3 hospital discharge strategy , result ing in substantial cost savings
While we found relatively good st and ards of reporting the study ’s question , population , interventions , comparators and conclusions , the overall reporting was poor , and evidence of unfamiliarity with international guidelines was evident ( i.e. absence of incremental analysis , of discounting long-term costs and effects ) .
Analysis or description of place-to-place variability was infrequent .
Use and acceptance of health economic evaluations ( HEEs ) has been much greater in developed than in developing nations .
Nevertheless , while developing countries lag behind in the development of HEE methods , they could benefit from the progress made in other countries and concentrate on ways in which existing methods can be used or would need to be modified to fulfill their specific needs .
HEEs , as context -specific tools , are not easily generalizable from setting to setting .
Existing studies regarding generalizability and transferability of HEEs have primarily been conducted in developed countries .
Therefore , a legitimate question for policy makers in Latin America and the Caribbean region ( LAC ) is to what extent HEEs conducted in industrialized economies and in LAC are generalizable to LAC ( trans-regional ) and to other LAC countries ( intra-regional ) , respectively .