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Browsing by Subject "vaikuttavuus"

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  • Mäkinen, Arttu (2018)
    This is a systematic review aiming to investigate the efficacy, effectiveness, and safety of biosimilars in the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases. Biosimilar drugs used to treat inflammatory bowel diseases include biosimilar infliximab and biosimilar adalimumab. Biosimilar infliximab has been authorized by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in 2013 and by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2016. Biosimilar adalimumab has been authorized by EMA and FDA in 2017 and, at the time the literary search for this systematic review was conducted no studies were found regarding the treatment of adalimumab biosimilar for inflammatory bowel diseases. To acquire marketing authorization for biosimilars, it must be proven that the biosimilar is biologically similar to the original medicinal product. Bioequivalence is demonstrated through physicochemical trials and clinical trials. However, clinical trials do not have to be performed with all of the indications for which the original medical product is registered. After proving bioequivalence with one or more indication it is possible to extrapolate the biosimilar to be used in all of the original medical products indications. This has raised the question of whether biosimilars are really comparable to the originator in indications for which no clinical trials have been conducted. This systematic review was implemented using the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews and Interventions. Systematic literature searches were made in Cochrane, Medline (Ovid®), PubMed and Scopus databases on 12.05.2017. 14 observational studies, one systematic review and a randomized clinical trial that met the inclusion criteria were included in the systematic review. The quality of the publications was evaluated using the STROBE-, NOS- and CONSORT-checklists and information regarding the efficacy, effectiveness and safety of biosimilars was extracted. CD-patients receiving tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitors for the first time, the clinical response was achieved in 50.0 % to 97.2 % of patients depending on patient population and the duration of treatment. Similarly, for UC-patients, the clinical response was achieved in 62.2 % to 100.0 %. The clinical remission was achieved among 28.9 % to 84.4 % of CD-patients and among 28.9 % to 84.4 % of UC-patients, depending on patient population and treatment follow-up. After the switch from original infliximab to biosimilar, the proportion of patients in clinical remission during follow-up ranged from 62.3 % to 100.0 % in CD-patients and from 45.5 % to 100.0 % in UC-patients. Clinical remission was sustained throughout the whole follow-up in 70 % to 100 % of CD-patients and 66.7 % to 92.0 % of UC-patients. The incidence of adverse events leading to the discontinuation of drug treatment was between 0.0 % and 25.0 %, and the incidence of all adverse events ranged from 0.0 % to 93.6 % in CD- and UC-patients. Biosimilar infliximab seems to be comparable to the original product regarding the efficacy, effectiveness and safety. This result is supported by the systematic literature review published earlier. Conducting a meta-analysis of the information contained in this systematic literature review could have led to a more final decision considering efficacy, effectiveness and safety of biosimilar-infliximab in the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases.
  • Kouvonen, Sonja (2024)
    To develop a closed-loop medication management process, monitoring the effects of medication should be integrated into patient information systems through structured recording methods. Sufficient documentation of medication monitoring is a prerequisite for implementing effective medication management and ensuring good quality, individualized care for patients. Medication management for patients with intellectual disabilities on the autism spectrum can be extremely challenging. The characteristics of intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorders, comorbidities, and polypharmacy make medication management and monitoring challenging. This study focused on patients with difficult behavioural symptoms. The study aimed to identify the most important symptoms to monitor in assessing the effects of medication in patients with intellectual disabilities on the autism spectrum. Additionally, it defined the time points from the initiation of medication when the effects should be assessed. The study was conducted as a two-round study using the Delphi consensus method in January-February 2024. The expert panel consisted of 12 experts in intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorders or in the field of medicine. Lists of behavioural symptoms, other symptoms, and monitoring time points were compiled for the study based on literature and the expertise of the research group. Experts were presented with a list of symptoms, and in the first round, symptoms that exceeded a consensus threshold of 50% proceeded to the second round. In the second round, experts ranked symptoms based on their importance for monitoring using Likert-scale questions. The data were analysed using quantitative and qualitative methods. Experts considered 9 behavioural symptoms and 22 other symptoms as highly important or important to monitor. The experts identified severe symptoms indicating self-harm or harm to others as the most critical behavioural symptoms to monitor. The most important other monitored symptoms included common comorbidities and symptoms within the patient group or adverse effects of medication. The effects of medication should be evaluated regularly, at least at the 4-week mark after initiating medication and after 3 months evaluations should be conducted at intervals of every 6 months. Monitoring the effects of medication was perceived to pose many challenges, and monitoring is not always carried out at a sufficient level. Many different symptoms should be monitored because patients are individual and present a variety of symptoms. It is essential to have a good understanding of the patient's condition before starting medication to assess the medication's impact on the patient's behaviour or other symptoms. The study highlighted the lack of structured monitoring forms and the need for monitoring tools.
  • Kuosmanen, Hanna (2022)
    More and more drugs for the treatment of lung cancer are entering the market with limited research evidence and high cost. However, health care resources are limited. To provide rationale and sustainable treatment for all patients, the need for health technology assessments has increased. International value frameworks with varying uses, structures, and components have also been developed to help assess the value of drug therapies. The purpose of the study is to illustrate how physicians, authorities, and pharmaceutical industry experts define the value and the effectiveness of drug therapy. The study also aims to chart the attitudes of health care professionals towards international value assessment frameworks and to describe the current challenges in health technology assessments focusing on lung cancer therapy. In addition, the purpose of the study is to evaluate the importance of therapeutic and economic evaluation of lung cancer therapies. The research material includes interviews with physicians (n=2), authorities (n=3), and pharmaceutical industry experts (n=5). The interviews were conducted as an individual (n=8) and pair interviews (n=1). The interview method used was a semi-structured thematic interview. The interviews were analyzed by using inductive and abductive content analysis and theming. The theoretical framework in the study was related to the challenges of assessing the therapeutic and economic value of pharmacotherapies. According to the study, the value and effectiveness of drug therapy are determined in a varied and perspective-dependent manner. The value of drug therapy can be divided into three dimensions, which were therapeutic, social, and economic impact. Treatment’s effectiveness was primarily determined by the health benefits gained and by the effects the therapy has on patients, society and care pathways. Based on the data, the current challenges of the therapeutic and economic evaluation of pharmacotherapies are related to the implementation methods and criteria of evaluation and decision-making, resources, cooperation needs, scientific evidence, ethics, the structure of the health care system and legislation. Based on the results, physicians, authorities, and pharmaceutical industry experts have different opinions of the need for cooperation. The interviewees also evaluated differently the status of the current development activities and the importance of international evaluations. There were also differences in the opinions on how important the therapeutic and economic evaluation of lung cancer therapies was considered. If the importance was considered low, the importance of the evaluations was expected to increase only after the refinement of treatment recommendations and guidelines. According to the data, the international value frameworks are not actively used in Finland and their significance will be considered insignificant in the future as well. The usefulness of the value frameworks was primarily limited due to structural factors, the assessment of reliability and the current evaluation system in Finland. The benefits of the value frameworks were primarily related to the coherence of the evaluation process, easing the evaluation process and improving patient equality.
  • Mäntylä, Juhani (2012)
    Inflammatory bowel diseases are among the fastest growing chronic disease of young people in Europe and they are increasing in Western countries for unknown reasons. Illness often occurs at a young age and the symptoms persist generally throughout life, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are the most common diseases in this category. Inflammatory bowel diseases often cause persistent symptoms and require treatment usually for life, affect the quality of life and the ability to go to work. Conventional treatment usually consists of anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive drug therapy or surgical intervention. In difficult cases, the biologic drug treatment is used. New biological drug products (TNF-blockers) have improved, in particular in Crohn's disease, a response to treatment. The aim of this study is to provide information about the effectiveness and the costs of the biological treatment in inflammatory bowel diseases. The main results presented are the changes of the quality of life during the observation period measured with the generic and disease-specific HRQoL instruments. The results are also reported on the matter of costs for quality-adjusted life-years gained during the follow-up period. The study consists of FinnIBDQ (inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire) survey (n=2831) and the follow-up survey of the patients who used biologic drug products (n=189). Patients were selected into the follow-up if they reported using the biologic drugs to treat the illness. FinnIBDQ-survey was conducted in 2006/2008 and follow-up questionnaire in 2011. As a generic HRQoL instrument was the 15D-instrument used which is a standardized measure of the health related quality of life. 15D-instrument produces a single index number between 0-1. IBDQ is a disease-specific HRQoL instrument, which consists of 32 questions. The total number of points varies between 32 and 224 from the worst to the best. Patients' medical history, symptoms, medication and health care use were studied in their own partition on the questionnaire. Biological drug therapy group belonged at the baseline (n=148) improved the quality of life (p=0.004) during the follow-up. A disease-specific HRQoL instrument (IBDQ) shows the quality of life has changed in parallel (p=0.003)with the 15D-instrument. Dimensions, where progress was achieved (p<0.05) were the elimination, the usual activities, discomfort and symptoms, as well as vitality and sexual activity. In the research group (n=51), the average cost per patient per QALYs gained during the follow-up period proved to be very high, at over 5 million euro's. During this time, the patient gained an average of 0,01 quality adjusted additional years of life. The evidence of the long-term impact of the biologic drug treatment on the patient's quality of life is still scarce. In most of the research concerned with the benefits of biological treatment, the effectiveness data is derived from the pharmaceutical manufacturers' short-term clinical efficacy studies, or taken from any other quality of life studies.