Length of stay and hospitalization costs for patients undergoing lung surgery with Progel pleural air leak sealant

Aim: Progel Pleural Air Leak Sealant (Progel) is currently the only sealant approved by the FDA for the treatment of air leaks during lung surgery. This study was performed to determine whether Progel use improves hospital length of stay (LOS) and hospitalization costs compared with other synthetic/fibrin sealants in patients undergoing lung surgery.

Methods: The US Premier hospital database was used to identify lung surgery discharges from January 1, 2010 to June 30, 2015. Eligible discharges were categorized as “Progel Sealant” or “other sealants” using hospital billing data. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to control for hospital and patient differences between study groups. Primary outcomes were hospital LOS and all-cause hospitalization costs. Clinical outcomes, hospital re-admissions, and sealant product use were also described.

Results: After PSM, a total of 2,670 discharges were included in each study group; baseline characteristics were balanced between groups. The hospital LOS (mean days?±?standard deviation, median) was significantly shorter for the Progel group (9.9?±?9.6, 7.0) compared with the other sealants group (11.3?±?12.8, 8.0; p?<?.001). Patients receiving Progel incurred significantly lower all-cause hospitalization costs ($31,954?±?$29,696, $23,904) compared with patients receiving other sealants ($36,147?±?$42,888, $24,702; p?<?.001).

Limitations: It is not possible to say that sealant type alone was responsible for the findings of this study, and analysis was restricted to the data available in the Premier database.

Conclusions: Among hospital discharges for lung surgery, Progel use was associated with significantly shorter hospital LOS and lower hospitalization costs compared with other synthetic/fibrin sealants, without compromising clinical outcomes.     

Third-Party Certification,Sponsorship, and Consumers’ Ecolabel Use

While prior ecolabel research suggests that consumers’ trust of ecolabel sponsors is associated with their purchase of ecolabeled products, we know little about how third-party certification might relate to consumer purchases when trust varies. Drawing on cognitive theory and a stratified random sample of more than 1200 consumers, we assess how third-party certification relates to consumers’ use of ecolabels across different program sponsors. We find that consumers’ trust of government and environmental NGOs to provide credible environmental information encourages consumers’ use of ecolabels sponsored by these entities, and consumers do not differentiate between certified versus uncertified ecolabels in the presence of trust. By contrast, consumers’ distrust of private business to provide credible environmental information discourages their use of business association-sponsored ecolabels. However, these ecolabels may be able to overcome consumer distrust if their sponsors certify the ecolabels using third-party auditors. These findings are important to sponsors who wish develop ecolabels that are more credible to consumers, and thus encourage more widespread ecolabel use.     

From sustainability to thrivability: A novel framework for entrepreneurial ecosystems

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - The present research proposes a theoretical framework for a thrivable entrepreneurial ecosystem in which thrivability is a novel...     

“Restrict foreigners,not robots”: Partisan responses to automation threat

Recent scholarship on technological change highlights its negative impacts on employment and wages. However, a decade of nationally representative surveys show that Americans hold favorable views toward technology despite concerns over labor displacement. How do people cope with employment threats from a trend they consider desirable? Using a survey experiment, this paper argues that people opt to buffer domestic workers from technological threats with substitute policies against outgroups that they believe could improve wages and employment prospects. Specifically, direct cues about technological displacement make Republicans more likely to demand tighter restrictions on immigration and Democrats more likely to support higher tariffs. In other words, citizens respond to automation anxiety by blaming and penalizing groups that they consider unwelcome or objectionable, depending on their partisanship. Respondents remained reluctant to express support for technological restrictions. Thus, automation anxiety may intensify resistance to globalization, but not necessarily technology.     

Ramsey rule with forward/backward utility for long-term yield curves modeling

Decisions in Economics and Finance - This paper draws a parallel between the economic and financial points of view in the modeling of long-term yield curves and provides new results on asymptotic...