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Background: The FLURESP project is a public health research funded by the European Commission, with the objective to design a methodological framework to assess the cost-effectiveness of existing public health measures against human influenza pandemics. A dataset has been specifically collected in the frame of the Italian health system. As most of interventions against human influenza are relavant against other respiratory diseases pandemics, potential interests in COVID-19 are discussed. Methods: Ten public health measures against human influenza pandemics pandemic were selected to be also relevant to other respiratory virus pandemics such as COVID 19: individual (hand washing, using masks), border control (quarantine, fever screening, border closure), community infection (school closure, class dismissal, social distancing, limitation of public transport), reduction of secondary infections (implementation of antibiotic therapy guidelines), pneumococcal vaccination for at-risk people, development of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) capacity, implementation of life support equipments in ICU, screening interventions, vaccination programs targeting health professional and targeting general population. Results: Using mortality reduction as effectiveness criteria, the most cost-effective strategies are "reduction of secondary infections" and "implementation of life support equipment in ICU". The least cost-effective option whatever the level of pandemic events are screening interventions and mass vaccination. Conclusions: A number of intervention strategies against human influenza pandemics appears relevant against every respiratory virus, including the COVID-19 event. Measures against pandemics should be considered according to their expected effectiveness but also their costs for the society because they impose substantial burden to the population, confirming the interest of considering cost-effectiveness of public health measures to enlighten decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. Modern treatment of RA includes the use of biologics. Their cost is high and comparison between different treatment strategies is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduction The widespread adoption of electronic health records (EHR) provides a new opportunity to improve the efficiency of clinical research. The European EHR4CR ( Electronic Health Records for Clinical Research ) 4-year project has developed an innovative technological platform to enable the re-use of EHR data for clinical research. The objective of this cost–benefit assessment (CBA) is to assess the value of EHR4CR solutions compared to current practices, from the perspective of sponsors of clinical trials. Materials and methods A CBA model was developed using an advanced modeling approach. The costs of performing three clinical research scenarios (S) applied to a hypothetical Phase II or III oncology clinical trial workflow (reference case) were estimated under current and EHR4CR conditions, namely protocol feasibility assessment (S1), patient identification for recruitment (S2), and clinical study execution (S3). The potential benefits were calculated considering that the estimated reduction in actual person–time and costs for performing EHR4CR S1, S2, and S3 would accelerate time to market (TTM). Probabilistic sensitivity analyses using Monte Carlo simulations were conducted to manage uncertainty. Results Should the estimated efficiency gains achieved with the EHR4CR platform translate into faster TTM, the expected benefits for the global pharmaceutical oncology sector were estimated at €161.5 m (S1), €45.7 m (S2), €204.5 m (S1 + S2), €1906 m (S3), and up to €2121.8 m (S1 + S2 + S3) when the scenarios were used sequentially. Conclusions The results suggest that optimizing clinical trial design and execution with the EHR4CR platform would generate substantial added value for pharmaceutical industry, as main sponsors of clinical trials in Europe, and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]