A profile of one of our papers appeared in Medical News Today, here's some of the article:
Three to five million central lines are placed into people's hearts in the United States every year. Some have complications, and these are costly. There are two methods of placement, ultrasound guided placement, and placement by hand, or the 'landmark' technique. Ultrasound guidance has fewer complications, but is more expensive. A recent study has asked how much would be saved in complications if every central line were placed by the ultrasound technique.
The study, "Ultrasound Guided Central Line Placement versus Standard Landmark Technique: Some Unpleasant Arithmetic for the Economics of Medical Innovation", set out to measure the cost of ultrasound guided central line placement using Medicare reimbursement data. This study, which is published in Value in Health, has costed-out the impact of these complications nationally based on US Medicare data reveals the initial 'cost' of placing central lines was found to be $390,780,000 - $651,300,000 dollars per year by the landmark technique, as compared to $494,820,000 - $824,700,000 dollars per year by ultrasound guidance. The study was co-authored by Stephen Kinsella and Nicholas Young, of the University of Limerick, Ireland, and Colorado, USA.
You can read the rest of the article here, or look at the paper itself here, which will be published in Value in Health, Vol 12(1), 2009.