The importance of health economics in rehabilitation medicine.

I found your editorial entitled “Research and publishing in rehabili tation medicine” (1) very informative and interesting. However, I would like to suggest that, in addition to the recommendations made, emphasis should also be placed on the importance of the health economics perspective for this area of research. I make this suggestion on the basis of the findings from a review of the health economic literature on neurorehabilitation services, carried out recently at government department level for the purposes of informing policy. The review demonstrated that the evidence base on the health economics of neuro rehabilitation was limited and patchy. The information deficits in this topic area have been widely commented upon (2–4). However, the consensus view is that these information gaps can be rectified, as the research methodologies in health economics have been sufficiently well-developed that they can now be applied in rehabilitation medicine (2–7). A recent example, in stroke care, demonstrated that a cost-effectiveness study can be quite neatly carried out in conjunction with a study on clinical efficacy (8). Research on the health economics of rehabilitation is very important for patients because information from such research is increasingly being used, both by policymakers and funders, to inform decisions about the optimal use of limited resources, often against a backdrop of many competing and disparate demands. It is mainly for this reason that I wish to highlight the importance of the health economics perspective in rehabilitation research and publishing.