Patient organizations play a crucial role in health technology assessments (HTAs), particularly for ultra-rare diseases. But how much do their inputs really matter? A recent study dug into 15 NICE appraisals from January 2022 to August 2024. They found that patients mainly talked about the disease i
Let's talk about a cool new way doctors are treating severe cases of a condition called idiopathic epiretinal membranes (iERM). This happens when a thin layer of tissue grows on the surface of the eye's retina, and in severe cases, it can have extra layers in the center of the eye. Now, the interes
You know how some kids have a slight overbite or underbite? Well, this kid had something much bigger to deal with: a giant open bite due to a large tongue, or what doctors call macroglossia. This isn't very common and makes it tough to bite and chew properly. It also affects the way the face looks.
Ever wondered how your health insurance fund's budget behaves with the economy? Let's zoom in on the Czech Republic, where the health care system is largely funded through Statutory Health Insurance. This scheme relies heavily on contributions from both employees and employers, which are based on wa
Imagine having trouble seeing out of one eye suddenly. You might think it's just a temporary thing, but doctors now suggest that a serious condition could be hidden behind it. This condition is called acute retinal artery ischemia. It's when the blood supply to the eye gets cut off, leading to visio
Imagine you're a business leader in China. Would you believe that paying taxes on pollution could actually boost your exports? Well, that's what happened with the Environmental Protection Tax Law (EPTL) introduced in 2018. This law charged companies for the pollution they produced, and the result? A
Researchers dug into the medical records of nearly 19, 000 patient eyes that had something called geographic atrophy (GA). They looked back, using data from CorEvitas Vestrum Health Retina Database. Over three years, they wanted to see what would happen. The team found that GA progresses di
For years, researchers have been digging into the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma, testing strategies from the famous Tit for Tat to advanced learning methods like neural networks. But, many studies use only a few strategies, making their findings questionable. In this work, scientists analyse 195 strat
Imagine winning the Mega Millions jackpot of $1. 15 billion. Sounds amazing, right? But let's talk about what you'd really take home. The federal government takes a chunk for taxes, and depending on where you live, the state might too. Only eight states don't tax lottery winnings: California, Florid
On Thursday, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) revealed that they had thwarted several assassination attempts by Ukrainian intelligence on high-ranking Russian military officers. The FSB stated that the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) was behind these plots, aiming to kill these officers and
