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Biomedical subjects

S Jan

Publications and source records attributed to S Jan.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1995

Study of parameters affecting poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) quantification by gas chromatography.

Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) quantification has been developed mostly using acidic methanolysis followed by GC analysis of the 3-hydroxybutyrate methyl ester. However, under our experimental conditions, only 62% of the ester was detected by GC analysis. Following the study of the different steps involved in this method (i.e., hydrolysis, esterification, and recovery of the ester), the recovery was shown to be limiting. Addition of water to the organic phase, required for its purification before injection, led to the partition of the ester between the organic and the aqueous phase. The influence of the length of acidic methanolysis time on the amount of ester detected was also investigated. NMR analysis was used to show that secondary products were absent in both phases, regardless of heating time. Moreover, increasing acid concentration and the use of lyophilized cells were shown to lead to the decrease of the treatment time. Concerning internal standard choice, methyl benzoate was found to meet all the requirements to correct injection volume errors or to follow organic phase volume changes as a function of acid and water concentrations. The validity of the method was checked on Rhizobium meliloti M5N1 cells, which are shown to produce about 60% PHB (w/w) when cultivated with fructose as the carbon source.

Chromatography, Gas↗
PubMed1995

Efficiency considerations in the expansion of radiation therapy services.

PURPOSE: An economic option appraisal to determine whether early investment in capital is an efficient means of expanding radiation therapy services. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Costs were based on 1991 data from a center in western Sydney. Two options were costed: Option 1 based on an increase in overtime performed by existing staff, using capital more intensively and possible use of shifts; Option 2 based on an investment in new capital and associated increases in levels of staffing. The health sector costs of both options were determined in one center at workloads of between 70,940 and 98,525 fields per year to assess relative efficiency. RESULTS: There was very little difference in cost between both options, with Option 1 slightly cheaper at workloads up to 98,525 fields per year. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that capital investment may be introduced at a fairly early stage without efficiency loss. Sensitivity analysis reinforces these conclusions and the generalizability of the results.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗
PubMed1995

Examining preferences for allocating health care gains.

This study is part of a programme to elicit and examine community preferences for health care in different contexts. Data were obtained from a group of predominantly Australian health care decision-makers. A short questionnaire contained six valuation questions and four demographic questions. The six valuation questions posed choices where equal health gains were to be allocated to different population groups based upon: age; sex; current health; socio-economic status; across time; and across different numbers of individuals. The results provide some evidence that respondents were prepared to discriminate between health gains derived in different contexts especially where health gains were to be allocated between groups of different health status and over time. Further research is planned and the possible implications for health policy, and in particular for resource allocation in health care, are briefly discussed.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1994

The NSW health outcomes initiative and economic analysis.

The New South Wales Health Department's initiative on health outcomes promises some important advances in the planning and priority setting of health services. However, the potential to promote better health care will not be realised unless resources are redeployed to the programs where health outcomes (and other benefits) can be purchased most cheaply. The initiative reflects firmly the economic concept of efficiency but leaves less certainty about how concerns for equity are to be handled. This paper proposes that program budgeting and marginal analysis be used to create a framework for redeploying resources to follow the good buys--in terms of health and other outcomes. Additionally, the paper argues for creating the right incentives to promote efficiency, and expressly argues against the use of diagnostic related groups or casemix funding, as such funding is concerned, by definition, with cases and not with health per se. The goal of the initiative of trying to maximise health outcomes implies that there are no other valued gains to be had from health care. This is challenged. In reaching decisions about how best to deploy resources, more account should be taken, in a structured way, of community values.

Delivery of Health Care↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Indirect cost in economic evaluation: the opportunity cost of unpaid inputs.

Unpaid time represents a potentially significant input into the health production function. The paper sets out the basis for valuation of time inputs consistent with the notion of opportunity cost. Such analysis requires consideration of whether time displaced in the production of health involves lost work or lost leisure. Furthermore, because valuation of opportunity cost requires the consistent treatment of costs and benefits, the study also considers the valuation of outputs. The basis for valuing the shadow price of work time is examined by firstly assuming perfect competition. The analysis then considers the presence of monopoly and monopsony in product markets and income and sales taxes. The basis for valuing the shadow price of leisure ("leisure' being all uses of time except paid employment) is restricted to an examination of methods previously used to value unpaid housework. The two methods examined are the replacement cost and the opportunity cost method. As the methods are not equivalent, the circumstances where each is appropriate vary depending on whether the output lost in producing health is replaced. Although not set out as the primary focus of the paper, the issues surrounding the valuation of outputs generated by non-market and quasi-market activity are examined. In particular, where activities such as informal care result in indirect utility to the carers (and patients) themselves, it is likely the full market wage provides a lower bound estimate of the value of marginal benefit. Finally the paper provides a practical approach to examining opportunity cost of unpaid inputs consistent with the concepts set out in preceding sections.

Caregivers↗