Methodological approaches to pharmaco-economics.
Due to the increased need for cost-containment policies, most decision makers are facing the issue of the efficiency of health care strategies. In this context, economic evaluation becomes a major instrument. However, the credibility of economic data depends on a number of methodological steps: selection of strategy of economic evaluation (cost/effectiveness, cost/benefit, generation of economic hypotheses, study design (cross-sectional, prospective, naturalistic), data collection (data-base, physicians), data analysis (costing, statistics). In this respect, the conduct of proper economic evaluation relies on a combination of expertise in clinical epidemiology as well as in health economics.
Benefit Research Group, Clinical Economics & Quality of Life, Asnières, France.
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Souêtre
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Qing
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Hardens
D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D017850:Economics, Pharmaceutical / Q000639:trends*; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D011788:Quality of Life; D012107:Research Design