In June 2006, a conference entitled Better Analysis for Better Decisions: Bridging the Gap Between Economic Evaluation and Healthcare Decision Making was held at McMaster University in honour of the late Bernie O'Brien. The papers presented by leading health economists were reviews of the use of...

<Emphasis Type="Bold">Background: ASCOT (Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial) showed in hypertensive patients that blood pressure-lowering treatment with an amlodipine-based regimen reduces events compared with an atenolol-based regimen and that atorvastatin was more effective than placebo. <Emphasis Type="Bold">Objective: To assess...</emphasis></emphasis>

The application of conjoint measurement to the field of health economics is relatively new, although there is growing interest and there have been a number of studies undertaken recently. Wider acceptance of the technique requires methodological issues concerning both reliability and validity to...

Objectives The UK's National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has an explicit cost-effectiveness threshold for deciding whether or not services are to be provided in the National Health Service (NHS), but there is currently little evidence to support the level at which it is...

My personal questioning of the impact of my research career in health economics subsequently led to a series of studies concerning the assessment of impact. That stream of research has emphasised, among other things: the importance of the ‘counterfactual’; that impact was the product of the...