The outcome of IHE initiatives is providing better information for developing health policy and best medical practices. IHE disseminates information in many ways. In addition to publications in peer-reviewed journals, IHE produces books and a variety of reports synthesizing information in a particular field.
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| Carmen Moga, Mohammad Karkhaneh, Dagmara Chojecki, Bing Guo, Erin Kirwin, Negar Razavilar, Jeff Round, Erica Wright, Charles Yan
Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most common forms of musculoskeletal pain in mid-age adults, with episodic and recurrent pain that can span over the entire life. LBP is a major public health problem worldwide because of its prevalence, associated temporary or permanent disability, and the extensive use of healthcare services by patients. This report aims to identify the appropriate/inappropriate…
| Lindsey Warkentin, Carmen Moga, Lisa Tjosvold, Mohammad Karkhaneh, Bing Guo, Dat Tran, Negar Razavilar, Jeff Round
Since the development of the fiberoptic endoscope in the late 1950s, endoscopy has become an indispensable tool for gastroenterology. The demand for gastrointestinal endoscopy services in Canada has outstripped its availability, resulting in prolonged wait times, patient anxiety and reduced satisfaction, and potential adverse health effects. Capacity for more urgent indications…
| John Sproule, Ken Bond, Lindsey Warkentin, Bing Guo, Nancy Zuck
This report is the result of a national consultation and roundtable deliberations conducted by the Institute of Health Economics to support the development of a National Strategy for Heart Valve Disease in Canada. Two virtual policy engagements with clinical leaders, patients and health system managers were conducted in November 2021. These workshops identified 9 thematic areas…
Long COVID has no commonly accepted case definition, but is characterized generally as the persistence of any COVID-19 symptoms past the typical convalescence period. Initial reports are emerging of significant ongoing symptom burden for some COVID-19 cases, but the prevalence and profile of these long-term cases, and the potential need for or utilization of community-based supports…
| Bing Guo, Carmen Moga, Charles Yan, Gareth Hopkin, Jeff Round, Jennifer Seida, Lisa Tjosvold, Michelle Pollock
This health evidence review assesses the clinical effectiveness and economic impact of various vascular risk reduction (VRR) initiatives that have been implemented in Alberta, and promising new initiatives, to inform priority-setting decisions regarding risk-reduction initiatives. The assessment also examines the clinical benefit that future projects would need to achieve for them…
| Susan Armijo-Olivo, Bing Guo, Nathan McClure, Carmen Moga, Negar Razavilar, Jeff Round, Lisa Tjosvold, Dat Tran, Charles Yan
This health evidence review assesses strategies for the delivery of high-quality and cost-effective stroke rehabilitation care in Alberta to inform decisions about how the province might increase care capacity for stroke rehabilitation services and maximize the benefits of effective treatment interventions. The review assesses two novel approaches to the delivery of high-quality…
| Lindsey Warkentin, Erica Wright, Bing Guo, Ken Bond
This Rapid Review assesses the evidence on the rate of COVID-19 transmission from children to children or adults compared with the rate of transmission from adults to others, and the rate of COVID-19 infection in children compared with the rate in adults, to support return-to-school decision making. Twenty-two articles were included in the review. Based on a rapid assessment of…
| Lindsey Warkentin, Erica Wright, Bing Guo, Ken Bond
Face mask use within schools has been suggested as a COVID-19 risk mitigation strategy, but the effectiveness of mask use as protection against COVID-19 transmission and infection in a school setting is currently unknown. This Rapid Review assesses the evidence on the impact of community mask use on the susceptibility to and transmission of COVID-19, and how mask use compliance…
Primary care services after hours in Alberta are limited, and, as a result, emergency departments have long wait times and overcrowding as they accommodate a greater number of low-acuity conditions. In recent decades, various urgent care models have been established to fill the gap between emergency and primary care, with the aim of providing unscheduled services for urgent but…
| Michelle Pollock, Ann Scott, Jennifer Seida, Paula Corabian, Andrew J. Sutton, Mike Paulden, Christopher McCabe, Lisa Tjosvold, Bing Guo
The clinical review and economic evaluation aimed to determine how Oncotype DX and Prosigna can be optimally used to determine which patients with early-stage breast cancer will benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. This report addresses the following research question: For patients with early-stage (I–III), ER+, HER2?, node-negative or node-positive (one to three nodes) breast…
| Paula Corabian, Bing Guo, Carmen Moga, Ann Scott
This article retrospectively examines the evolution of rapid assessments (RAs) produced by the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Program at the Institute of Health Economics over its 25-year relationship with a single requester, the Alberta Health Ministry (AHM).
| Paula Corabian, Bing Guo, Carmen Moga, Ann Scott
The Health Technology Assessment Program at the Institute of Health Economics has conducted rapid assessments (RAs) since 1993. This information paper draws on this experience and describes the evolution of RA process and products over a 25-year relationship with a single requester to quantify the effects of this partnership on the RAs produced. The aim is to contribute to emergent…
This environmental scan describes existing initiatives that aim to accelerate the diagnostic phase of cancer care in Alberta, Canada, and internationally. Specifically, it describes their development and implementation, structure and functioning, intended outcomes and effectiveness, costs and cost savings, and enablers and barriers.
| Rodger Craig, Carmen Moga, Bing Guo, Dagmara Chojecki
The Institute of Health Economics (IHE) was commissioned by the Canadian Cardiovascular Society to provide a rapid update of the literature, to compare the impacts of public reporting and external benchmarking on selected outcomes, and to evaluate and describe the applicability of this body of research to non- competitive health systems, emphasizing perspectives and considerations…
| Bing Guo, Paula Corabian, Charles Yan, Lisa Tjosvold
This evidence-based report examines expanding the role of paramedics in the community. It summarizes the various types of community paramedicine programs (characteristics, implementation, and funding sources in other jurisdictions) as well as the safety, effectiveness, and economic outcomes of these paramedic programs towards providing patients with alternate, non-emergency health…
Alberta STE Report written under contract with the Alberta Health Technologies Decision Process (AHTDP). This report is an update of the “Technological efficacy/effectiveness analysis” (T) section of the 2014 Alberta STE report, which was an evidence assessment of the clinical effectiveness and safety of endovenous ablation interventions for symptomatic varicose veins…
| Bing Guo, Carmen Moga, Christa Harstall, Don Schopflocher
Objective: Because of a lack of a control group, a case-series study is considered one of the weaker study designs from which to obtain evidence on treatment effectiveness. Under certain circumstances, however, this is the only available evidence to inform health-care decisions. This study's intent was to develop and validate a quality appraisal checklist specifically for…
For which strategies of suicide prevention is there evidence of effectiveness? This report aims to synthesize research findings from existing systematic reviews to address two questions: What types of preventive interventions have been evaluated in the published literature? Which strategies have good-quality evidence to support them? Limited evidence - as well as variability by…
| Carmen Moga, Bing Guo, Don Schopflocher, Christa Harstall
This Methodology Paper summarizes the process, a modified Delphi approach, used to develop a specific checklist for the quality appraisal of case series studies. This work was supplemented with a review of other published checklists and an initial pilot test of the newly developed quality appraisal checklist. Researchers at the Institute of Health Economics with researchers from…
| Bing Guo, Christa Harstall, Thomas Louie, Sander Veldhuyzen van Zanten, Levinus Dieleman
Aim: To critically appraise the clinical research evidence on the safety and effectiveness of FT compared with standard care in the treatment of patients with CDAD.
| Bing Guo, Christa Harstall, Thanh Nguyen, Arto Ohinmaa
Alberta STE Report written under contract with the Alberta Health Technologies Decision Process (AHTDP). Fecal transplantation for the treatment of Clostridium difficile-associated disease or ulcerative colitis examines the clinical research evidence on the safety and effects of fecal transplantation in the treatment of patients with Clostridium difficile-associated disease…
This report on Means Restriction for Suicide Prevention provides a summary of information regarding national means restriction policies/strategies and national/provincial intentional overdose prevention policies/strategies and their effectiveness. Policies/strategies that focus on children, youth, and young adults are of particular interest. This report consists of two parts: Part…
The objective of this report is to assess research evidence on the safety and prognostic value of exercise testing (including electrocardiogram exercise testing and cardiopulmonary exercise testing) for the prediction of cardiac events in patients with chronic diseases including diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and arthritis. Information Specialist: Trish…
The purpose of this report is to update an earlier HTA report published in 2003. This report examines the newly published clinical research evidence on the safety and efficacy/effectiveness of islet transplantation in type 1 diabetic patients who have severe hypoglycemia episodes or hyperglycemia unawareness but are without kidney failure. The main clinical efficacy/effectiveness…
Risk assessment tools for predicting recidivism of spousal violence. The objective of this report is to assess the research evidence on the inter-rater reliability and predictive validity of various risk assessment instruments in predicting male-to-female spousal violence recidivism and lethality in those males who had contact with the police system. Information Specialist: Liz…
Safety and efficacy of inhaled nitric oxide in the management of hypoxemic respiratory failure in adults with acute respiratory distress syndrome. This report was prepared in collaboration with the Health Technology Assessment program of the Institute of Health Economics, SEARCH Canada, and Calgary Health Region. It focuses on the published scientific evidence regarding the safety…
A successful screening program for cystic fibrosis (CF) refers to the ability of the program to appropriately identify and refer for care those with CF, while meeting the needs of those who do not have CF, particularly those infants identified by the screening program as carriers (individuals unaffected by CF but have a mutation in one of their CFTR genes). Some measures of success…
Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR) HTA Report #38. This report aims to identify strategies that have been evaluated and reported in the literature and to assess their effectiveness in reducing emergency department overcrowding. Information Specialists: Seana Collins, Liz Dennett NOTE: In 2006 the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research HTA unit moved…
Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR) Information Paper #26. The aim of this study was to determine whether laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) is a safe and effective procedure compared with open and/or laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LRYGB) and laparoscopic vertical banded gastroplasty (LVBG), especially in the longer term (> or = five…
Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR) HTA Report #35. The objective of this report is to assess the efficacy and safety of using trigger point injection (TPI) to treat patients with chronic non-malignant musculoskeletal pain, based on a systematic review of the current published evidence, and to determine the current state of the procedure, the feasibility of…
Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR) HTA Report #31. This report was prepared in response to a request from Alberta Health and Wellness (AHW) for information about the use of islet cell transplantation for patients with type 1 diabetes. AHW was specifically interested in the current status of islet cell transplantation using the Edmonton protocol for a sub-population…
Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR) HTA Report #28. This report provides an overview of the evidence from systematic reviews on the effectiveness of suicide prevention strategies. NOTE: In 2006 the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research HTA unit moved to IHE. Documents produced in and prior to 2006 have different formats; the format was determined…
Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR) HTA Report #26. Given the very broad range of suicide prevention strategies, it is unrealistic to cover all of them in this report. Thus, the main focus of this review is to present the findings from primary research that assessed the efficacy/effectiveness of suicide prevention programs on school aged children and youth…