Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Chemotherapy For Lung Cancer: Determinants Of Guideline Adherence And Associated Patient Outcomes, Ramzi George Salloum

Wayne State University Dissertations

Evidence-based guidelines recommend chemotherapy for medically fit patients with stage II-IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Adherence to chemotherapy guidelines has rarely been studied among large populations, mainly because performance status (PS), a key component in assessing chemotherapy appropriateness, is missing from claims-based datasets. Among a large cohort of patients with known PS, this dissertation describes chemotherapy use relative to guideline recommendations and identifies patient factors and outcomes associated with guideline concordant use. Among these patients 29% do not receive guideline recommended chemotherapy treatment, missing opportunities for cure or receiving chemotherapy with more risk of harm than benefit, thereby likely …

Essays On The Impact Of Oil Price Shocks On The Macroeconomy, Latika Gupta Lagalo

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

ESSAYS O THE IMPACT OF OIL PRICE SHOCKS O THE

Advisor: Dr. Ana María Herrera

Major: Economics

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

MACROECOOMY

by

LATIKA GUPTA LAGALO

December 2011

This dissertation analyzes the relationship between oil price and industrial production.

use recently developed methods and techniques to investigate the functional form and

structural stability of the relationship between oil prices and industrial production. In my

first chapter, I use both slope-based tests and impulse response based tests to provide

evidence of nonlinearity in the response of U.S. industrial production to oil price shocks

My second essay further empirically assesses the …

Consumer Search And Switching Behavior: Evidence From The Credit Card Industry, Omar Adel Abdelrahman

Wayne State University Dissertations

The introduction of the credit card in the mid-twentieth century revolutionized and transformed how people live. Based on a set of new survey data, this dissertation empirically investigates and analyzes consumers' behavior in the credit card market. Specifically, it investigates the underlying determinants of consumers' choices regarding switching credit-card balances. To estimate the likelihood that consumers switch credit cards, two logit models are estimated. Using data from the Consumer Finance Monthly (CFM) of The Ohio State University, the author finds that at the conventional 5 percent level of significance, the following variables have significance: old interest rate, new interest rate, …

International Transmission Of U.S. Real, Nominal, And Financial Shocks, Bamadev Paudel

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation identifies real, nominal, and financial shocks in the U.S. and observes their effects on U.S. as well as G�macroeconomic variables. First, the real and nominal shocks in the U.S. are identified by using long-run implications of an open economy stochastic macroeconomic model, and the effects of these shocks are observed in real GDP, real effective exchange rates, and the prices for the U.S. relative to each of six other G�7 countries. While Blanchard and Quah's long-run identification strategy is used to identify the shocks, short-run implication of the model are also exploited, as a prima facie evidence, by …

Hospital Quality And Medicare Payment: A Theoretical And Empirical Investigation, Jinghua Huang

Wayne State University Dissertations

Does Medicare's payment rate for a hospital stay influence the quality of care received by a patient? We examine this question, theoretically and empirically. First, a model is developed which generates the key hypothesis -- that Medicare's payment rate per admission should be positively related to care quality. We then test this hypothesis by estimating the relationship between Medicare's DRG payment for pneumonia, heart failure and heart attacks and care quality, using clinically-recognized measures of the quality of pneumonia care, heart failure care and heart attack care. Newly available data on acute hospitals in 2007 from "Hospital Compare" (maintained by …

The Impact Of Regulatory Changes On The Providers Of Treatment For Opioid Dependence, Paul Aaron Fisher

Wayne State University Dissertations

In 2000, changes in federal law allowed physicians to receive waivers to use narcotic medications, such as buprenorphine, for treatment of opioid dependence. As of 2006, physicians have been allowed to treat up to 100 patients after spending one year at a 30-patient limit. Physicians may choose to discontinue use of buprenorphine after the patient has successfully discontinued use of the substance of abuse ("withdrawal"), or physicians can keep patients on buprenorphine indefinitely ("maintenance"). The model in this dissertation assumes that demand for treatment of opioid dependence is exogenous but that demand for maintenance treatment can be induced by the …

The Effect Of Changes In Drug Benefit Design Among Individuals With Diabetes In Large Employer-Sponsored Insurance Plans, Ninee Shoua Yang

Wayne State University Dissertations

THE EFFECT OF CHANGES IN DRUG BENEFIT DESIGN AMONG INDIVIDUALS WITH DIABETES IN LARGE EMPLOYER-SPONSORED INSURANCE PLANS

By

NINEE SHOUA YANG

August 2011

Advisor: Dr. Allen C. Goodman

Major: Economics

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

With spending for prescription drugs rising so rapidly, employers and insurers are seeking different cost-cutting strategies to stem this tide. Given that prescription drugs have become an indispensable means to treat and manage chronic illnesses, the issues of affordability and trade-offs between medications and other health care services are important for chronically ill patients, particularly for patients with diabetes who typically have more than one comorbidity …