Rationale Increasing attention is being given to the evaluation of public health interventions. Methods for the economic evaluation of clinical interventions are well established. In contrast, the economic evaluation of public health interventions raises additional methodological challenges. The...

All Iranian hospitals have been subject to a grading system which determines the payments they can charge. We examined all possible pathways through which the grading system could influence hospitals’ adherence to audited standards.

This article considers the nature of risk in health care and the use the National Health Service (NHS) makes of risk management. It explores how the concept of risk has been challenged by the rise of ‘evidence-based’ health care, accompanied and accelerated by a decline in professional...

This paper examines some of the issues that arise when seeking to tackle health inequalities in a context of limited health care resources. Increasingly, central agencies are using devolved budgets for health care providers as a central instrument of expenditure control. Equity objectives play...

The role of modelling in economic evaluation is explored by discussing, with examples, the uses of models. The expanded use of pragmatic clinical trials as an alternative to models is discussed. Some suggestions for good modelling practice are made. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.