There is increasing use of economic evaluation to support decision-makers in health services for allocation of scarce healthcare resources. However, information necessary for economic evaluations cannot always be derived from well-conducted prospective clinical studies, and decision-analytical...

This article provides an outline for a cost-effectiveness analysis of a drug that slows the consequences of Alzheimer's disease. Such an analysis cannot easily be performed for 2 main reasons. The first is that often relatives and friends, rather than professionals, take care of the patient....

Objective: The value of early detection of subclinical hypothyroidism is the object of a long lasting debate. In this study, we assessed the cost effectiveness of a policy based upon screening for this condition through thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4)...

Objective: This model introduces a unique and inexpensive technique to estimate profit increases that might be expected from: (i) an additional clinical trial to establish a drug's second clinical indication; and (ii) a survey of market demand. Design: Microsoft Excel_ spreadsheets are used to...

In pharmacoeconomics, the comparison of the costs of 2 different drugs used for the same treatment is of great interest. The problem is especially challenging when the drugs are likely to produce costly adverse effects in a small number of patients, which is often the case. The data are then...

Short term health effects can significantly impact health-related quality of life (HR-QOL). Appropriate healthcare priorities can be set only if they are based on health status measurements which are consistent with how people value both short and long term health effects. This article discusses...

This article presents the first version of the reporting format for economic valuation that was created in 1995 by a multidisciplinary taskforce. The members of this taskforce come from a broad spectrum of backgrounds within the healthcare field and participated in the exercise voluntarily. The...

Objective: The objective of the study was to compute a cost-effectiveness ratio relating the economic cost of trandolapril to the number of effectiveness units (i.e. life-years) gained. Design and Setting: The trandolapril cardiac evaluation (TRACE) study was a prospective placebo-controlled...

This willingness-to-pay (WTP) analysis is the first study of its kind undertaken in Australia to support an application for listing of a new drug on the Australian national formulary. The technique offers the advantage of being able to summarise diverse outcomes of therapy in a single unit of...