Economic Evaluation in Healthcare
Book Summary 2021-2022
,TABLE OF CONTENTS
COURSE LEARNING GOALS ........................................................................................................... 3
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 4
CHAPTER 2.1 - 2.6: ECONOMIC EVALUATION IN HEALTHCARE ....................................... 5
CHAPTER 5.1 - 5.6: MEASURING, VALUING, AND ANALYSING HEALTH OUTCOMES
............................................................................................................................................................... 15
CHAPTER 6: DEFINING, MEASURING, AND VALUING COSTS .......................................... 26
CHAPTER 7: ANALYSING COSTS ................................................................................................ 32
CHAPTER 8: DECISION ANALYTIC MODELING: DECISION TREES ................................ 36
CHAPTER 9: DECISION ANALYTIC MODELING: MARKOV MODELS ............................. 42
CHAPTER 10: REPRESENTING UNCERTAINTY IN DECISION ANALYTIC MODELS ... 47
CHAPTER 11: PRESENTING COST-EFFECTIVENESS RESULTS......................................... 51
,COURSE LEARNING GOALS
Upon completion of the course the student is able to:
1. Explain the rationale and background behind economic evaluation in healthcare,
2. Distinguish different approaches towards economic evaluation stemming from different
disciplines, and categorize proposed methods accordingly,
3. Distinguish and interpret clinical outcome measures as reported in clinical studies,
4. Describe and apply methods for measuring quality of life for use in economic evaluation in
healthcare,
5. Describe and apply methods for measuring and valuing resource use in healthcare, and the
concept of discounting,
6. Distinguish between trial-based and model-based economic evaluation, and know when to
apply which,
7. Interpret the results of an economic evaluation study, and discuss impact on health economic
decision making,
8. Critically discuss innovation with professionals and stakeholders, and distinguish their
different perspectives.
, CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Scarcity and choice are two fundamental elements involved in the planning and provision of
HC services; the available resources are never sufficient to allow for provision of all available
health interventions. Choices must be made, which can involve very difficult decisions.
ð The concept of allocating scarce resources in the best manner is encountered in every
context, though the # of absolute resources varies per context.
The issue in HC can be stated as: “How can the scarce health resources allocated to
health care best be used in order to maximise the health gain obtained from them”.
ð Maximing health gain is not the only objective of a HC system; a HC system also has
interests vested in fairly distributing resources (e.g., education, training, research)
ð Maximizing the health gain is termed the efficiency objective, which is further
elaborated on in the book.
