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Biomedical subjects

A Wouters

Publications and source records attributed to A Wouters.

27 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

Evaluation of a preferred provider organization.

Preferred provider organizations (PPOs) have emerged as a new approach to organizing health care services; the promise of melding the primary strengths of indemnity insurance with HMO plans was rapidly embraced. The performance of PPOs has not yet been measured critically, despite their growth to over 250 plans. A single, large case study of PPO design and performance is examined, revealing a mixed but hopeful picture of administrative challenges, physician response, patient use patterns, and cost reductions, PPOs offer fertile ground for future research.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Multichannel microspectrofluorometry for topographic and spectral analysis of NAD(P)H fluorescence in single living cells.

Starting from a previously described prototype microspectrofluorometer a more versatile apparatus has been developed with rapid optional operation on a topographic mode for the simultaneous multisite evaluation of NAD(P) reduction-reoxidation transients or on a spectral mode for the analysis of natural and exogenous fluorochromes, in single living cells. On the topographic mode, adetailed kinetic analysis of NAD or NAD P-linked dehydrogenases can be made from 50-100 cell points imultaneously via automatic recording of topographic scans upt to 16 times a second, in correlation with microelectrophoretic intracellular inuection of metabolites (e.g. nearly immediate response to glucose 6-phosphate, 20-25 s delay for 6-phosphogluconate). Rapid shifts from topographic to spectral operation make possible the detection of a change in fluorescence intensity at a specific intracellular site and the immediate verification of its nature (NAD(P)H or exogenous fluorochrome) by spectral observations.

Evaluation Studies as Topic↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Cost recovery and improved drug availability in Niger--implications for total patient treatment costs.

Using quasi-experimental design methods, this study investigated, for a cost recovery intervention in Niger, how the total costs of an episode of treatment for an acute illness for a typical patient changed when user fees were imposed but accompanied by an improved drug supply. Episode costs included both cash and opportunity costs. With few exceptions, the comparisons of both the unadjusted and adjusted patient episode costs showed that patient total episode costs in the intervention sites increased relative to the control site. The infusion of resources in Say and Boboye meant that now patients had essential medicines to buy, in comparison to Illela where stocks of essential medicines continued to deteriorate. Trends in episode costs within each intervention district demonstrated that to some extent cost recovery accompanied by an improved drug supply did not significantly change the total cost of an episode of treatment. In Say, this was true for malaria cases, females and the poor. However, in Boboye, reductions in copayments were offset by a mandatory tax payment paid by both users and non-users.

Acute Disease↗