Economic evaluations of health technologies: insights into the measurement and valuation of benefits

Economic evaluations have been applied in the field of healthcare for several decades with the principle aim of improving the economic efficiency of resource allocation, i.e., help maximizing benefits from available (and constrained) resources. Broadly speaking, “economic evaluation is the comparative analysis of alternative courses of action in terms of both their costs and consequences” (Drummond et al., 1997). Economic evaluations became reasonably well-accepted in the decision-making process within the systems of different countries because they offer a promise of a systematic and transparent framework for deciding which intervention - among alternative interventions - to fund from a restricted budget. That is, once efficacy and effectiveness have been established, decision-makers can decide between competing interventions based on their relative cost-effectiveness and thus maximize the aggregate (value of) health benefits attained.

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