The past three decades have seen a rapid growth in the discipline of health economics, particularly in the area of economic evaluation of health care interventions. The aim of this article is to provide an introduction to the concepts of economic evaluation in health care, and the methodological issues pertaining to the identification, measurement and valuation of costs and benefits. In a subse...

This commentary discusses how health economic techniques can usefully be applied to inform clinical and policy decision making in the aged care sector from two perspectives: firstly, in relation to the measurement and valuation of the costs and benefits of new and existing health care technologies and modes of aged care service delivery and secondly, in relation to the facilitation of autonomy ...

With the skyrocketing costs of modern health care, many health policy planners turn to cost effective analysis (CEA) or cost benefit analysis (CBA) to get quantitative answers for appropriateness of health procedures. This article analyzes how well approaches like CEA or CBA handle the hidden ethical judgements for such problems as: alternative treatments for an identical goal, the most effec...

International mental health economics is emerging as a significant field in the increasingly intricate and interactive world in which we live. In line with this, the conceptualisation and gathering of pertinent data for international studies such as WHO's Atlas Project pose considerable methodological challenges. This paper outlines the need for broader conceptual models and partnerships and di...

Antibiotics have made a significant contribution to improving patient health, but policy makers and health care payers are concerned about the costs of antibiotics in addition to their effectiveness. This paper aims to assess the value of antibiotics by examining incremental cost-utility ratios of antibiotics. Evidence was derived from cost-utility analyses of antibiotics included in the Tufts-...

The previous part of the series (part II)' was concerned with the questions of choice in the context of financing systems. This and the next two parts are again concerned with choice, the central issue of economics. Here (part III) we discuss some of the ways in which economics has been and can be used within the National Health Service to assist in developing health care policy. How to plan th...

The health care system in China has been undergoing reforms for the past three decades. New policies and regulations are being developed to better meet the health needs of over a billion people. As reform programs expand, the need for scientific evidence increases, to enable accurate evaluation of the impact of new policies. In this context, health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) will be...

Important decisions about the financing, determining priorities in and provision of health services depend on beliefs about facts and relationships. It is argued in this paper that many popular beliefs are either logically wrong or are not supported by the evidence. Important errors exist in the beliefs about the effects of technology and ageing populations on health care costs, affordability o...

BACKGROUND Efficiency and equity are both important policy objectives in resource allocation. The discipline of health economics has traditionally focused on maximising efficiency, however addressing inequities in health also requires consideration. Methods to incorporate equity within economic evaluation techniques range from qualitative judgements to quantitative outcomes-based equity weights...