Economic evaluation.

M F Drummond; R Aguiar-Ibanez; J Nixon

Home/Archive/PubMed

PubMed · 16752012

Economic evaluation.

M F Drummond·R Aguiar-Ibanez·J Nixon

View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Given the need to assess the value for money of healthcare treatments, economic evaluation has been gaining popularity over the past ten years. Studies comparing the costs and consequences of alternative healthcare interventions have been published in all fields of healthcare. This article describes the basic forms of economic evaluation and outlines the key methodological features to be considered in the critical appraisal of studies. Issues such as the appropriateness of the study question, the selection of alternatives to be compared, the measurement of costs and consequences, and the assessment of uncertainty are discussed. Additionally, an analytical critique of economic evaluations undertaken in Singapore is provided, and the prospects for economic evaluation in the future are discussed.

Explore related subjects

Cost-Benefit Analysis Efficiency Health Resources Health Services Research Humans Models, Economic Quality-Adjusted Life Years Resource Allocation Singapore Uncertainty Journal Article

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

M F Drummond, R Aguiar-Ibanez, J Nixon. 2006. Economic evaluation.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16752012/

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

PubMed2007

Discounting in economic evaluations: stepping forward towards optimal decision rules.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence has recently changed its guidelines on discounting costs and effects in economic evaluations. In common with most other regulatory bodies it now requires that health effects should be discounted at the same rate as costs. We show that the guideline leads to sub-optimal decisions because it fails to account for the changing value of health. NICE (and other regulatory bodies) should either use differential discounting or stipulate how the changing value of health should otherwise be dealt with. We also show how binding health service budget constraints should be incorporated in evaluations.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗

PubMed2007

Unrelated medical care in life years gained and the cost utility of primary prevention: in search of a 'perfect' cost-utility ratio.

An important subject of debate in cost-utility analysis of health care programmes is whether to include costs of unrelated medical care in life years gained. The inclusion of such costs is likely to be of consequence in the case of primary prevention. This paper presents different strategies regarding the inclusion not only of the costs, but also of the health effects of unrelated medical care in economic evaluations. Four different cost-utility ratios are presented and related to the criterion of internal consistency. In addition, the possibility to relate the ratios to a well-posed decision problem is analysed. An example computes the different ratios for smoking cessation interventions in different age groups. Including health care costs of unrelated medical care in life years gained increases cost utility ratios, but excluding unrelated medical costs favours smoking cessation interventions targeted at older smokers over those at younger smokers. We conclude that for primary prevention only a cost utility ratio that includes both the costs and effects of unrelated medical care meets the criterion of internal consistency and is related to a meaningful decision problem. Therefore, this type of cost-utility ratio should be preferred even if the data requirements may be substantial.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗

PubMed2006

A visual probe localization and calibration system for cost-effective computer-aided 3D ultrasound.

The 3D ultrasound systems produce much better reproductions than 2D ultrasound, but their prohibitively high cost deprives many less affluent organization this benefit. This paper proposes using the conventional 2D ultrasound equipment readily available in most hospitals, along with a single conventional digital camera, to construct 3D ultrasound images. The proposed system applies computer vision to extract position information of the ultrasound probe while the scanning takes place. The probe, calibrated in order to calculate the offset of the ultrasound scan from the position of the marker attached to it, is used to scan a number of geometrical objects. Using the proposed system, the 3D volumes of the objects were successfully reconstructed. The system was tested in clinical situations where human body parts were scanned. The results presented, and confirmed by medical staff, are very encouraging for cost-effective implementation of computer-aided 3D ultrasound using a simple setup with 2D ultrasound equipment and a conventional digital camera.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗