Valuing health outcomes is a fundamental concern in health economics. This article considers a measure of health outcomes: the Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY). The QALY has been used extensively for two main reasons: (1) it arguably values health outcomes in a more acceptable metric than money...

The last decade has shown a concerted effort in the UK to find ways of reducing coronary heart disease (CHD), culminating in the recent government target of a 30% reduction in the rates in people under the age of 65 years to be achieved between 1988 and 2000 by modification of the main risk...

We performed a cross-sectional, bottom-up observational study of resource consumption and quality of life of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) in the United Kingdom. Three centers participated in the study. Patients received a questionnaire either by mail or during a clinic visit, and a...

Background: It is often assumed that the objective of health care is to maximise health using available resources. This is the principle underpinning NICE's use of cost effectiveness analysis based on incremental cost per QALY gained. Yet research on local NHS decision making shows that cost per...