Cost-effectiveness analysis has been advocated in the health economics methods literature and adopted in a growing number of jurisdictions as an evidence base for decision makers charged with maximising health gains from available resources. This paper critically appraises the information...

In Canada, there are two separate review processes for the public reimbursement of drugs: one for cancer drugs (originally called the Joint Oncology Drug Review [JODR] and now called the pan-Canadian Oncology Drug Review [pCODR]) and one for drugs in all other disease areas (called the Common...

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) responds to requests by the Department of Health for guidance on the use of selected new and established technologies in the National Health Service (NHS) in England and Wales. This paper asks whether the NICE methodological guidelines help...

Various methods have been proposed to address uncertainty in economic evaluations of healthcare programmes. One approach suggested in the literature is to estimate separate confidence intervals for the incremental costs and effects of a new health programme in comparison with an existing...

Despite renewed enthusiasm for the use of willingness to pay (WTP) in healthcare applications, there are still a lot of objections, resentment and scepticism regarding the desirability and feasibility of this technique. Objections can be classified into different categories: e.g. theoretical,...

Objective: The objectives of this study were 1. to develop a conceptual framework for selecting hospitals for unit cost estimates in national and international multicentre trials and 2. to test the impact of alternative hospital selection on the cost results. Design and setting: Within the...

The advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), including protease inhibitors and/or non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, for the treatment of HIV infection has led to a dramatic decline of morbidity and mortality. The acquisition costs of HAART are substantial. However,...

Objectives: To measure preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for a novel anaesthetic (dental gel) versus existing anaesthetic options for periodontal maintenance visits. Design: The study was conducted by developing and administering a survey, composed of a modified decision aid and a WTP...