Jason N. Doctor

Comparison of one and two-stage revision of total hip arthroplasty complicated by infection: a Markov expected-utility decision analysis.

BACKGROUND Two-stage revisions of total hip arthroplasties complicated by chronic infection result in reinfection rates that are lower than those following single-stage revisions but may also result in increased surgical morbidity. Using a decision analysis, we compared single-stage and two-stage revisions to determine which treatment modality resulted in greater quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). METHODS A review of the literature on the treatment of patients with an infection at the site of a total hip arthroplasty provided probabilities; utility values for common postoperative health states were determined in a previously published study. With these data, we conducted a Markov cohort simulation decision analysis. Sensitivity analysis validated the model, and comparisons were made in terms of QALYs. RESULTS The twelve-month model favored direct-exchange revision over the two-stage approach, regardless of whether surgeon or patient-derived utilities were used (0.945 versus 0.896 and 0.897 versus 0.861 QALYs for the patient and surgeon models, respectively). Similar results were observed in a lifetime model with a ten-year life expectancy (7.853 versus 7.771, and 7.438 versus 7.362 QALYs, respectively). The findings were found to be robust in sensitivity analyses in which clinically relevant ranges of input variables were used. CONCLUSIONS This analysis favored the direct-exchange arthroplasty over the two-stage approach. This study should be considered hypothesis-generating for future randomized controlled trials in which, ideally, health end points will be considered in addition to the eradication of infection.

Time of Day and the Decision to Prescribe Antibiotics

Clinicians make many patient care decisions each day. The cumulative cognitive demand of these decisions may erode clinicians’ abilities to resist making potentially inappropriate choices. Psychologists, who refer to the erosion of self-control after making repeated decisions as decision fatigue,1,2 have found evidence that it affects nonmedical professionals. For example, as court sessions wear on, judges are more likely to deny parole, the “easier” or “safer” option.3

A decision aid for intensity-modulated radiation-therapy plan selection in prostate cancer based on a prognostic Bayesian network and a Markov model

OBJECTIVE The prognosis of cancer patients treated with intensity-modulated radiation-therapy (IMRT) is inherently uncertain, depends on many decision variables, and requires that a physician balance competing objectives: maximum tumor control with minimal treatment complications. METHODS In order to better deal with the complex and multiple objective nature of the problem we have combined a prognostic probabilistic model with multi-attribute decision theory which incorporates patient preferences for outcomes. RESULTS The response to IMRT for prostate cancer was modeled. A Bayesian network was used for prognosis for each treatment plan. Prognoses included predicting local tumor control, regional spread, distant metastases, and normal tissue complications resulting from treatment. A Markov model was constructed and used to calculate a quality-adjusted life-expectancy which aids in the multi-attribute decision process. CONCLUSIONS Our method makes explicit the tradeoffs patients face between quality and quantity of life. This approach has advantages over current approaches because with our approach risks of health outcomes and patient preferences determine treatment decisions.

pSCANNER: patient-centered Scalable National Network for Effectiveness Research

This article describes the patient-centered Scalable National Network for Effectiveness Research (pSCANNER), which is part of the recently formed PCORnet, a national network composed of learning healthcare systems and patient-powered research networks funded by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). It is designed to be a stakeholder-governed federated network that uses a distributed architecture to integrate data from three existing networks covering over 21 million patients in all 50 states: (1) VA Informatics and Computing Infrastructure (VINCI), with data from Veteran Health Administrations 151 inpatient and 909 ambulatory care and community-based outpatient clinics; (2) the University of California Research exchange (UC-ReX) network, with data from UC Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego; and (3) SCANNER, a consortium of UCSD, Tennessee VA, and three federally qualified health systems in the Los Angeles area supplemented with claims and health information exchange data, led by the University of Southern California. Initial use cases will focus on three conditions: (1) congestive heart failure; (2) Kawasaki disease; (3) obesity. Stakeholders, such as patients, clinicians, and health service researchers, will be engaged to prioritize research questions to be answered through the network. We will use a privacy-preserving distributed computation model with synchronous and asynchronous modes. The distributed system will be based on a common data model that allows the construction and evaluation of distributed multivariate models for a variety of statistical analyses.

Minimal clinically important differences for the EQ-5D and QWB-SA in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): results from a Doubly Randomized Preference Trial (DRPT)

ObjectiveTo determine the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) for the health-utility measures EuroQol-5 dimensions (EQ-5D) and Quality of Well Being Self-Administered (QWB-SA) Scale in PTSD patients.Research design and methodsTwo hundred patients aged 18 to 65 years with PTSD enrolled in a doubly randomized preference trial (DRPT) examining the treatment and treatment-preference effects between cognitive behavioral therapy and pharmacotherapy with sertraline and completed the EQ-5D and QWB-SA at baseline and 10-week post-treatment. The anchor-based methods utilized a Clinical Global Impression-Improvement (CGI-I) and Clinical Global Impression-Severity. We regressed the changes in EQ-5D and QWB-SA scores on changes in the anchors using ordinary least squares regression. The slopes (beta coefficients) were the rates of change in the anchors as functions of change in EQ-5D and QWB, which represent our estimates of MCID. In addition, we performed receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to examine the relationship between the changes in EQ-5D and QWB-SA scores and treatment-response status. The MCIDs were estimated from the ROC curve where they best discriminate between treatment responders and non-responders. The distribution-based methods used small to moderate effect size in terms of 0.2 and 0.5 of standard deviation of the pre-treatment EQ-5D and QWB-SA scores.ResultsThe anchor-based methods estimated the MCID ranges of 0.05 to 0.08 for the EQ-5D and 0.03 to 0.05 for the QWB. The MCID ranges were higher with the distribution-based methods, ranging from 0.04 to 0.10 for the EQ-5D and 0.02 to 0.05 for the QWB-SA.ConclusionsThe established MCID ranges of EQ-5D and QWB-SA can be a useful tool in assessing meaningful changes in patient’s quality of life for researchers and clinicians, and assisting health-policy makers to make informing decision in mental health treatment.Clinical trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov; Identifier: NCT00127673.

Cost-effectiveness of prolonged exposure therapy versus pharmacotherapy and treatment choice in posttraumatic stress disorder (the Optimizing PTSD Treatment Trial): a doubly randomized preference trial.

OBJECTIVE Cost-effectiveness of treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may depend on type of treatment (eg, pharmacotherapy vs psychotherapy) and patient choice of treatment. We examined the cost-effectiveness of treatment with prolonged exposure therapy versus pharmacotherapy with sertraline, overall treatment preference, preference for choosing prolonged exposure therapy, and preference for choosing pharmacotherapy with sertraline from the US societal perspective. METHOD Two hundred patients aged 18 to 65 years with PTSD diagnosis based on DSM-IV criteria enrolled in a doubly randomized preference trial. Patients were randomized to receive their treatment of choice (n = 97) or to be randomly assigned treatment (n = 103). In the choice arm, patients chose either prolonged exposure therapy (n = 61) or pharmacotherapy with sertraline (n = 36). In the no-choice arm, patients were randomized to either prolonged exposure therapy (n = 48) or pharmacotherapy with sertraline (n = 55). The total costs, including direct medical costs, direct nonmedical costs, and indirect costs, were estimated in 2012 US dollars; and total quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) was assessed using the EuroQoL Questionnaire-5 dimensions (EQ-5D) instrument in a 12-month period. This study was conducted from July 2004 to January 2009. RESULTS Relative to pharmacotherapy with sertraline, prolonged exposure therapy was less costly (-

Health utility bias: a systematic review and meta-analytic evaluation.

262; 95% CI, -

Use of behavioral economics and social psychology to improve treatment of acute respiratory infections (BEARI): rationale and design of a cluster randomized controlled trial [1RC4AG039115-01] - study protocol and baseline practice and provider characteristics

5,068 to

Comparative effectiveness of statin plus fibrate combination therapy and statin monotherapy in patients with type 2 diabetes: use of propensity-score and instrumental variable methods to adjust for treatment-selection bias

4,946) and produced more QALYs (0.056; 95% CI, 0.014 to 0.100) when treatment was assigned, with 93.2% probability of being cost-effective at

Predictors of Health-Related Quality-of-Life Utilities Among Persons With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

100,000/QALY. Independently, giving a choice of treatment also yielded lower cost (-