Cost effectiveness: from whose perspective?
Article Abstract:
Cost-effectiveness analyses in health care should follow ethical and methodological guidelines in order to reduce the bias of results. The results of these analyses affect what services are provided to the growing number of people who receive managed health care. Economic analyses are particularly important in deciding on the care provided for high-risk diseases, such as AIDS. Administrative guidelines, such as those that regulate clinical trials, are required so that the costs of therapies are regularly assessed. Guidelines on the methods of analyses should be followed to prevent manipulation of statistics to provide desired conclusions. Ethical guidelines should require that all available data be analyzed and that the researcher is not influenced by the sponsor of the research. These guidelines should also require that health outcomes are not selected in a way to favor positive results. Cooperation between doctors, patient advocates, lawyers, and pharmaceutical companies can lead to the establishment of such guidelines.
Publication Name: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes and Human Retrovirology
Subject: Health
ISSN: 1077-9450
Year: 1995
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Understanding the essentials of economic evaluation
Article Abstract:
The three types of economic evaluations (EE) used in health care compare different actions with regard to their costs and benefits. The first type, cost-effectiveness analysis, expresses a dollar cost in relation to a particular health outcome, such as a saved life. The second type, cost-utility analysis, expresses the cost of action in relation to a subjective outcome, such as years of survival adjusted by quality of life. The third type, cost-benefit analysis expresses both the cost and outcome in terms of dollar values. In formulating an EE, one must answer various questions regarding what outcomes are possible, who will be acting on the results, and who will be bearing the costs. An EE consists first of a decision analysis in which a decision tree is constructed and the probability of each outcome is calculated in association with each choice. An EE then consists of a cost analysis in which the costs of each decision and outcome are evaluated, placed on the decision tree, and compared.
Publication Name: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes and Human Retrovirology
Subject: Health
ISSN: 1077-9450
Year: 1995
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Working toward a common currency: is standardization of cost-effectiveness analysis possible?
Article Abstract:
Standardizing the methods of cost-effectiveness analysis in medical economics may be desirable, but limited because this type of analysis is still developing. Distinct medical services have a wide range of economic results that are more difficult to analyze than physiological results. Adding a cost-effectiveness analysis onto the end of a clinical trial may only be appropriate when the cost of treatment is similar in the trial and in the community. Cost-effective analyses may be accurate when they look at the economics of a treatment in the community. Retrospective analysis can also be useful in assessing the costs of a treatment that entered general practice in the past. However, retrospective studies are susceptible to a bias in selecting data. Mathematical models are limited by their complexity and their applicability in the real world. However, they may be helpful substitutes for trials that would be unethical or lengthy.
Publication Name: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes and Human Retrovirology
Subject: Health
ISSN: 1077-9450
Year: 1995
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
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