title: New cost-effective treatment strategies for acute emergency situations.
abstract: In an era of ever-increasing healthcare costs, new treatments must not only improve outcomes and quality of care but also be cost-effective. This is most challenging for emergency and critical care. Bigger and better has been the mantra of Western medical care for decades, leading to costlier but not necessarily better care. Recent advances focused on new implementation processes for evidence-based best practices such as checklists and bundles have transformed medical care. We outline recent advances in medical practice that have positively affected both the quality of care and its cost-effectiveness. Future medical care must be smarter and more effective if we are to meet the increasing demands of an aging patient population in the context of ever more limited resources.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York 10032; email: sc3328@columbia.edu , dhc5@columbia.edu.
authors.forename: Subani
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chandra
authors.forename: David H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Chong
mesh_terms: D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003422:Critical Care / Q000191:economics* / Q000458:organization & administration; D003693:Delirium / Q000517:prevention & control; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000191:economics* / Q000458:organization & administration; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D019057:Quality-Adjusted Life Years; D018805:Sepsis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000191:economics / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy*; D017216:Telemedicine