May 01, 2004
Cost-Benefit Analysis and Health Care Evaluations
Author: Robert J. Brent
Hardback ISBN: 1 84064 844 9
Paperback ISBN: 1 84376 508 X
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
'Professor Brent's book is a superb and much-needed text in the field of
health care evaluation. The economic approaches for appraisal of health care
programs are presented with greater clarity than any other available text. A
comprehensive review of cost-minimization, cost-effectiveness analysis,
cost-utility analysis, and cost-benefit analysis is given in a simple and
yet very insightful manner that pointedly demonstrates their fundamental
principles, methodological requirements, and common linkages for evaluation
research. The book skilfully merges theory and application of the economic
analyses of health care, combining the latest literature with adroit
illustrations of required methodologies and easily understandable examples
that inform the reader of how empirical evaluation research should be
conducted. Major evaluation concerns about the appropriateness of
discounting health benefits, the appropriate discount (interest) rate, and
intangible benefits and costs are critically appraised. Not only is the
criterion of economic efficiency of health care programs explored directly
and with lucidity, but the important social question of the equity of health
interventions is also assessed straightforwardly. Students of health care as
well as health policy analysts and administrators are provided with a
considerable solid foundation for undertaking evaluation of complex health
care issues. In short, Professor Brent has even made the economics of health
care evaluation accessible to non-economists in the health care field.'
- Paul L. Solano, University of Delaware, US
Cost-benefit analysis is the only method of economic evaluation which can effectively indicate whether a health care treatment or intervention is worthwhile. This book attempts to build a bridge between cost-benefit analysis, as developed by economists, and the health care evaluation literature which relies on other evaluation approaches such as cost-minimization, cost-effectiveness analysis and cost-utility analysis.
Hardback April 2003: $110.00
Paperback May 2004: $55.00
400 pp
Pre-paid orders placed via Edward Elgar Publishing's website receive a 10% discount.
March 01, 2004
Developments in economic evaluation in health care: a review of HEED
Author: Clive Pritchard
Publisher: Office for Health Economics
Price £7.50
Health care providers around the world are increasingly concerned with the use of economic evaluation in public policy decision making. As the application of economic criteria becomes more widespread, so sources of information on the cost-effectiveness of health care technologies become more important. One such source is HEED : the Health Economic Evaluations Database; it has already contributed to around a quarter of the first 75 technology appraisals completed by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE).
The briefing sets out the types of studies included on HEED and analyses of how they have changed over time, regarding types of evaluation, disease areas covered and study design, as well as key issues for studies using modelling methodologies. The briefing should be of interest to practitioners and consumers of economic evaluations.
To order go to OHE
February 27, 2004
Priority Setting Toolkit: A Guide to the Use of Economics in Health Care Decision Making
Authors: Craig Mitton, Cam Donaldson
ISBN: 0-7279-1736-6
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing
Priority setting is a skill required of anyone in health care management today. This book reviews the different methodologies and comes down firmly in favour of an economics-based approach, namely programme budgeting and marginal analysis (PBMA). Based on their wealth of international experience and unique collaborative research programme, the authors show how PBMA can be used as a vehicle for taking account of the complexities of health care whilst still basing decisions on sound economic concepts. Thus, it is demonstrated that PBMA is not only about economics but also the all important issues of patient and public benefit.
Priority Setting Toolkit is published by Blackwell Publishing (price £19.95). It can ordered from Blackwell
ISBN 0-7279-1736-6
Priority Setting Toolkit provides the academic background as well as the tools for implementation. With its illustrative case histories, this is a unique source of information on this important aspect of getting health economics used in the everyday, but fundamental, practice of managing scarcity. It will help clinicians and managers planning for optimum health care delivery within a fixed budget, as well as health economics students and academics who wish to learn more about helping people manage their resources to improve population health.
With chapters on:
- The basic economic concepts
- Alternative approaches to priority setting
- Review of the PBMA literature
- Putting PBMA into practice
- The challenges of data and time
- The challenge of the programme budget
- The challenge of disinvesting
- The challenge of measuring and valuing benefits
- The challenge of involving the public
- The challenge of the organisation
February 27, 2004: Methodology
December 01, 2003
Bayesian Statistics in Health Economics and Outcomes Research
Authors: Anthony O'Hagan, Bryan R. Luce
Publishers: Bayesian Initiative in Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Centre for Bayesian Statistics in Health Economics
This Primer is for health economists, outcomes research practitioners and biostatisticians who want to understand the basics of Bayesian statistics and how Bayesian methods may be applied in the economic evaluation of health care technologies.
To order a hard copy contact Susan Potter
To download a copy go to Bayesian Statistics
December 01, 2003: Methodology
November 01, 2003
Statistical Methods for Cost Effectiveness Evaluation
Author: Andy Briggs
ISBN: 1899040 72 2
Publisher: Office for Health Economics
Price £12.50
Health economic evaluation has come of age. Today many industrialized countries recognize the importance of cost-effectiveness evidence in decision making. and the liscencing of new medications. Whilst not currently a regulatory requirement, the emergence of organizations such as the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the UK, the Canadian Coordinating Office for Helath Technology Assessment (CCHOTA) and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) in Australia are part of a general trend towards using cost-effectiveness information to decide which health care interventions are to become part of routine clinical practice. The increased interest in cost-effectiveness means it is now common to find economic variables collected prospectively alongside clinical trials. Over the last decade, to cope with the many new statistical methods for health economic evaluation have been suggested; not all have stood the test of time. The recent nature of many developments means that not all have yet been captured in popular textbooks in this area and what was once considered acceptable in term of analysis may no longer be appropriate.
In this latest OHE book a collection of papers by acknowledged experts in trial-based health economic evaluation is presented with the aim of giving clear guidance on recent developments in statistical methods for health economic evaluation, together with the intuition behind those methods, but without detailed technical exposition.
To order go to OHE
Chapter 2: Statistical analysis of uncertainty in cost-effectiveness studies Chapter 3: Sample size calculations and their sensitivity to underlying assumptions Chapter 4: The decision making perspective of health economic evaluation is essentially Bayesian Chapter 5 Sample size calculations for cost effectiveness from a Bayesian perspective capturing the spirit of what the analyst is attempting to do Chapter 6: Approaches to cost analysis in the presence of censoring Chapter 7: Inter-country comparisons: the use of statistical tests of heterogeneity between groups
November 01, 2003: Methodology
January 01, 2003
Making Choices in Health: WHO Guide to Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
Editors: T. Tan-Torres Edejer, R. Baltussen,
T. Adam, R. Hutubessy, A. Acharya, D.B. Evans, C.J.L. Murray
ISBN: 9241546018
Publisher: World Health Organization
Several guidelines on cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) already exist. There are two reasons for producing another set. The first is that traditional or "incremental" CEA ignores the question of whether the current mix of interventions represents an efficient use of resources. Secondly, the resources required to evaluate the large number of interventions required to use CEA to identify opportunities to enhance efficiency are prohibitive. The approach of generalized CEA proposed in this Guide seeks to provide analysts with a method of assessing whether the current as well as proposed changes to the mix of interventions is efficient. It also seeks to maximize the generalizability of results across settings.
The main objective of this Guide is to provide policy-makers and researchers with a clear understanding of the concepts and benefits of generalized CEA. It provides guidance on how to undertake studies and how to interpret the results. Therefore, the main focus of the Guide is on those methodological issues which make generalized CEA different from traditional analysis in CEA. Attention is also paid to controversial issues in CEA in general and where methodological choices are required, such as the inclusion or exclusion of productivity costs. Furthermore, the Guide provides some detailed discussions on issues which are little debated in the literature but are nevertheless important, for example, the technical approach to the transferability of cost estimates across settings.
The Guide, in Part I, begins with a brief description of generalized CEA and how it relates to the two questions raised above. It then considers issues relating to study design, estimating costs, assessing health effects, discounting, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis, and reporting results. Detailed discussions of selected technical issues and applications are provided in a series of background papers, originally published in journals, but included in this book for easy reference in Part II.
The Guide and these papers are written in the context of the work of WHO-CHOICE: CHOosing Interventions that are Cost-Effective. WHO-CHOICE is assembling regional databases on the costs, impact on population health and cost-effectiveness of key health interventions using standardized methodology and tools. WHO-CHOICE tools on costing (CostIt), population effectiveness modeling (PopMod) and probabilistic uncertainty analysis (MCLeague) are included in the accompanying compact disc.
312pages
Swiss francs: 30.- / US $27.00
In developing countries: Sw.fr. 21.- / US $18.90
Order no. 1150542
Orders to: WHO
September 01, 2002
Evidence-Based Public Health
Authors: Ross C. Brownson, Elizabeth A. Baker, Terry L. Leet and Kathleen N. Gillespie
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication: Sep 2002
ISBN13: 9780195143768
ISBN10: 0195143760
Price: $45.00 (05) Hardback, 256 pp;
29 line illus; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4;
Description: Public health decisions are often based on short-term demands rather than long-term study, and policies and programs are sometimes developed from anecdotal evidence. To enhance evidence-based practice, this book provides practical guidance on how to choose, carry out, and evaluate evidence-based programs and policies in public health settings.
Reviews
“I was looking for a book that was grounded in the familiar territory of evidence based medicine much documented in the pages of the BMJ in recent years. I was not disappointed. I then looked for sensible application of this territory to public health practice and for an easily understood and systematic approach to making it happen. Again, I was pleased to see precisely this emerge.”
- Phil Ayres, Leeds Teaching Hospitals
“…a wealth of information and know-how, backed up by good practical illustrations of real-life evidence, issues, situations and decisions.”
- J R Coll Physicians
About the Author(s)
Ross C. Brownson, Professor of Epidemiology, and Director of the Prevention Research Center , Elizabeth A. Baker, Associate Professor of Behavioral Science and Health Education , Terry L. Leet, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology , and Kathleen N. Gillespie, Associate Professor of Health Management and Policy, All at St.Louis University School of Public Health, MO
September 01, 2002: Methodology
March 01, 2002
Health Economics: An Introduction to Economic Evaluation 2nd Edition
Author: Gisela Kobelt
ISBN: 1 899040 22 6
Publisher: Office for Health Economics
Price: £5
This update of Gisela Kobelt's "green guide" provides an accessible and practical introduction to the principles behind economic analysis and a step by step guide to the methods used when undertaking economic evaluations of health care interventions.
This book is aimed at those without an in-depth knowledge of the topic but who are actively involved in generating economic data or who are users of the results of economic evaluations. The emphasis is on the use of econonmic analysis as a tool to aid decision making and the relevant techniques are illustrated throughout with detailed examples of their application.
This second edition updates the first published in 1994, adding new material and further examples to introduce the reader to the key developments in methodology that have taken place in more recent years.
To order go to OHE
Topics covered are:
- The policy context for economic evaluation
- Components and types of economic evaluation
- Categorisation and measurement of resource use
- Valuation of direct and indirect (productivity) costs
- Health-related quality of life measurement
- Valuation of health effects using utility or monetary measures
- Data synthesis using decision trees
- Markov models
- Dealing with uncertainty
- Guidelines for economic evaluation
December 01, 2001
Applied Econometrics for Heath Economists - A Practical Guide
Author: Andrew Jones
ISBN: 1 899040 17
Publisher: Office for Health Economics
Price: £5
This book by Professor Andrew Jones provides and easy to understand adn intuitive guide tothe eocnometric techniques important to heath eocnomists. The book is aimed at all health economists who are not specialists in econometrics but who need to understand the rationales for, and limitations of,m econometric techniques currently in use. Important mathematical formulations and derivations are included in a technical appedix, but the emphais is on giving intuitive explanations an illustrative examples of a wide range of econometric methods, and showing the results of applying them.
To order go to OHE
Topics covered are:
- Linear probability model
- Probit
- Logit
- Ordered probit
- Multinomial models
- Bivariate provit
- The selection problem and the Heckit model
- Count data regression
- Duration analysis
- Panel data models - linear and binary choice
December 01, 2001: Methodology
July 31, 1997
Methods for the Economic Evaluation of Health Care Programmes: Second Edition
Authors: Michael F. Drummond, Bernie O'Brien, Greg L. Stoddart, George W. Torrance
ISBN: 0-19-262773-2
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Since its publication in 1987, Methods for the economic evaluation of health care programmes has become the standard textbook in this field worldwide. Over the past ten years, the field of economic evaluation in health care has expanded considerably, with a rapid rise in the number of published studies, and wider recognition of their use in health care decision making. Developments in economic evaluation have also led to the publication of several guidelines for study methodology, most recently those proposed by the United States Public Health Services Panel.
The new edition will be required reading for anyone commissioning, undertaking, or using economic evaluations in health care, and will be popular with health service professionals, health economists, and health-care decision-makers. The key methodological principles are outlined using a critical appraisal checklist that can be applied to any published study. The methodological features of the basic forms of analysis (cost analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-utility analysis, and cost-benefit analysis) are then explained in more detail. The book has been greatly revised and enlarged, especially with respect to cost-utility and cost-benefit analysis, where major methodological developments have taken place. New to this edition are chapters on collecting the analysing data, and presenting and using economic evaluation results. Published in 1997.
For more information or to order a copy visit OUP