Introduction to Cost Effectiveness Analysis in Health

Specifically this course will provide participants with understanding of how economic analysis can be used to assist with the evaluation of health programs and how this information can aid decision making. The course will consist of short lectures, case studies and practical class exercises.

Course Dates:

• Tuesday 10th October 2023 (in person)
• Registration is at 8:45am for a 9:00am start with the formal program finishing at 5pm.

Course outline

Module 1: Introduction to Health Economics
Concepts in economics and economic evaluation will be introduced including the role of health economic evaluation, the types of economic evaluation (cost minimisation, cost-effectiveness, cost utility and cost benefit) and methods for valuing health outcomes using measures like health-related quality of life to produce quality-adjusted life years (QALYs).

Module 2: Cost measurement
An introduction to the concepts involved in measuring costs for economic evaluation. The module will cover the principles behind measurement of cost and will teach about how to cost an intervention or program, how to analyse cost data and how to present cost results. There will be an exercise related to costing an intervention or program in practice.

Module 3: Outcome measurement
Concepts involved in measuring outcomes for use in economic evaluation will be covered. Participants will learn about the different measures of health status, techniques used to value health states, the use of utility scales and methods to calculate a quality-adjusted life year. During the session participants will completed a health state valuation exercise.

Module 4: Interpretation of economic evaluation results for policy
An introduction on how to properly interpret and use cost-effectiveness information to inform policy decisions, especially in relation to priority setting. Participants will be introduced to the understanding, use and misuse of concepts such as cost-effectiveness ratios, league tables, incremental ratios, ceiling ratios, reporting and uncertainty. Participants will complete an exercise relating to use of league tables.

Concluding group exercise: Application of economic evaluation methods
Participants are provided an opportunity to consider their own interventions or choose from the examples provided and apply the health economic concepts they have learnt from the course.

Final session (Optional):Interested participants are invited to have a short discussion with the course leaders about the health economics involved in particular projects they are currently working on.

Find out more and register to attend.