Nohora Marcela Mendoza

Evaluación de campo de la precisión de la prueba de diagnóstico rápido SD Bioline Malaria Antigen Pf/Pv® en Colombia

INTRODUCTION Economic evaluation is a tool that can provide useful information to decision-makers in health. The methodological quality of Colombian studies has not been assessed in a systematic way. OBJECTIVE To assess the methodological quality of economic evaluations in health care in Colombia. MATERIALS AND METHODS Systematic review of economic studies that assessed both costs and effectiveness of at least two technologies related to a decision problem in Colombia. Search was performed in international and Colombian databases and was completed with manual searches and contact with authors. Data was synthesized in tables that included relevant information about the studies. Methodological quality was evaluated using a predefined instrument. Searches were performed between January and February. RESULTS 48 studies were included in the review. Perspective of the study, incremental analyzes and description of alternatives were usually well specified. However, more than half of the articles did not state clearly the time horizon or discount rate and most studies did not address equity and implementation issues. Management of uncertainty was also problematic. CONCLUSIONS Economic evaluation in health care in Colombia has grown considerably in recent years. However, methods vary considerably between studies and therefore their usefulness for decisionmaking in health is limited. It is necessary to standardize methods in order to generate evidence of higher quality to support decisions within the Colombian health care system.

[Characterization of the national malaria diagnostic network, Colombia, 2006-2010].

INTRODUCTION The implementation and development of activities of the quality assurance system of malaria diagnosis, allows the adequate operation of the national diagnostic network, needed to strengthen prevention and control actions of this important public health problem. OBJECTIVE To characterize the malaria diagnosis network in Colombia between 2006 and 2010. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective study was made by reviewing the annual reports of malaria diagnosis network activities that were sent by the Public Health Laboratories (PHL) between 2006 and 2010. The study included analysis of diagnostic coverage in population at risk and an evaluation of activities and training to the people responsible for malaria diagnosis. RESULTS Malaria diagnostic coverage has increased in Colombia, from 53% of municipalities covered in 2006 to 80% in 2010. The number of places that perform diagnosis increased by 31% with a significant increase, for the same period, of the number of microscopists (56%) and laboratories (30%), to 1,195 and 1,780 respectively, registered in 2010. During the period of study, the percentage of PHL that carried out at least 3 of the activities of the quality assurance system for the diagnostic network at local level was 67%. CONCLUSIONS It is necessary to continue strengthening the malaria diagnosis network to provide timely and adequate diagnosis in order to reduce the morbidity and mortality by malaria.