This analysis compared the costs and benefits of tamoxifen for women with early breast cancer. The main question addressed was: what are the costs and benefits of the use of tamoxifen as an adjuvant treatment in terms of survival and disease free survival for women? Survival and disease free...

Background Public hospitals have experienced budget constraints but as demand for admissions has been growing at the same time, occupancy levels have been increasing. As emergency and urgent admissions are given priority, the effect has been not just longer waiting times and larger waiting lists...

In this report we examine an issue central to the creation of the NSW Drug Court: namely its cost-effectiveness, compared with conventional sanctions, in reducing drug-related crime. We were particularly fortunate in undertaking this evaluation, to receive the support and cooperation of the Drug...

This discussion paper provides an introduction to the estimation of benefits in economic evaluation. The concept of benefits, as something worth making a sacrifice to obtain, is explained. The issue of what the benefits of health care is discussed. Methods for the identification of benefits are...

An evaluation of the Fractured Hip Management Program was conducted, in order to assess its cost effectiveness relative to treatment of these patients without the program. A before-and-after study design was used to identify the impact of the program on the length of hospital stay and outcome,...

While there are many published economic evaluations of health care, few allow the reader to understand the practice of costing health care programmes. The aim of this document is to fill this gap. In the document, the principles of how to cost health care for economic evaluation are outlined....

Economic evaluation is a topic of increasing interest in the health sector. As resource scarcity and opportunity cost, the relevance of economic to decision makers should increase. However, those who fund and support research are becoming more concerned to make it accountable and relevant. Hence...

Obstetric early discharge provides an alternative to conventional, hospital based, postnatal care. Clients are discharged around two days earlier than usual and followed up at home by a midwife for up to seven days after delivery. Although previous evidence has shown that health status is at...

Background: Economic evaluation of healthcare interventions and technologies using the quality-adjusted life year (or life year) usually values outcomes independently of who they accrue to. This is a simplifying assumption relating to the more complex societal preferences. While the premise of...

Since the early 1980s it has been identified that even though economic evaluation is considered useful by economist it is not widely used by health care decision-makers. One of the ways to close the gap is to involve decision-makers in the process. This project was set up to gain a better...