Our analysis confirms that alcohol-based skin preparation in cardiac surgery with povidone-iodine reduces the incidence of organ-space infections with no significant superiority in preventing incisional SSI compared with chlorhexidine-alcohol.

No abstract

In this IssueIssue 2 of Value in Health presented an entire issue related to Value Frameworks. That issue received considerable attention from both ISPOR members and stakeholders who are interested in how assessment of the value of pharmaceuticals and other healthcare technologies will continue to evolve throughout the world. While the evolution of value assessment is uncertain, it is clear that the increased pressure on affordability of medicines and the increased focus on patients as critical to any value assessment will influence future research and decision making. The current issue includes a decision-maker commentary on how multicriteria decision analysis will play an increasing role in health technology assessment (HTA), underscoring how HTA agencies adopt new methods for improved decision making.Volume 20, Issue 3 also includes several papers that highlight the role of patients in assessing clinical and economic value. The article by Susan Bartlett, et al. describes emerging guidance related to the role of patients as research collaborators. The article discusses the skills needed by patients and the approaches needed by research partnerships to support effective patient-researcher partnerships. Another paper provides an overview of how patient-reported outcome labeling in the United States has changed over the last five years. Surprisingly, the analysis shows a decrease in PRO-related labeling for NDAs during 2011-2015 as compared to 2006-2010. This finding highlights a disconnect between the literature suggesting that PROs will have a more central role in HTA and the reality that there has not been increased uptake of PROs within FDA-approved label, an important criterion for may payers to incorporate such evidence into their decision making.