title: Social values and health priority setting in England: "values" based decision making.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the organisational and procedural arrangements for priority setting in England and Wales. It describes the role of social values in the decision-making process.
  
  
  METHODS
  The processes and content of decisions made by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence are analysed using the framework developed by Clark and Weale for identifying social values in health priority-setting.
  
  
  RESULTS
  While countries are seeking to achieve similar outcomes from their health prioritisation processes, each country has established different systems that reflect the social and legal framework underpinning their health systems. England is somewhat unique in being explicit about assessing "value for money" and using formal cost-effectiveness in developing policy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Many countries are now considering the use of formal health economic methodologies to assess the value and prioritise health care interventions. However there is increasing recognition of the importance of values other than efficiency (cost effectiveness) in making acceptable decisions. This is manifest in the range of potential new approaches being developed including multiple criteria decision analysis.
authors.affiliation: Division of Health and Social Care Research, King's College School of Medicine, London, UK. Peter.littlejohns@kcl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Littlejohns
authors.forename: Tarang
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jeong
mesh_terms: D003657:Decision Making; D004739:England; D006292:Health Priorities; D006801:Humans; D012945:Social Values