title: [Cardiovascular diseases in the focus of health economics. The example of drug-eluting vascular stents in coronary heart disease].
abstract: Coronary heart disease is an important disorder in Western industrialized societies, with regard to both the epidemiologic and economic burden of illness. A modern therapeutic strategy consists of coronary interventions and the implantation of drug-eluting vascular stents. The cost-effectiveness of such drug-eluting stents has been an important subject of health-economic evaluation research in recent years. This article presents two examples of such studies and deals with the question whether existing study projects are able to provide sufficient evidence for allocation decisions in health care. On this basis we discuss important challenges for future health economic analysis. A key conclusion is the need for long-term and cross-sectoral evaluation strategies that could be based on routinely collected health care data. Supplemented by health economic results from clinical trials, the use of such data would lead to a broader data basis for allocation decisions in health care.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Sozialmedizin, Epidemiologie und Gesundheitsökonomie, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Luisenstr. 57, 10117, Berlin, Deutschland. thomas.reinhold@charite.de
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Reinhold
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Müller-Riemenschneider
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: McBride
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Brüggenjürgen
authors.forename: S N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Willich
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery*; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics*; D054855:Drug-Eluting Stents / Q000191:economics*; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000191:economics*