Mr Alexander Carter COW 2.10

This course is compulsory on the Executive MSc in Health Economics, Outcomes and Management in Cardiovascular Sciences. This course is not available as an outside option.

In the health sector, decision makers are regularly faced with the challenge of allocating finite resources in an optimal manner. Economic evaluation (or cost-effectiveness analysis) is used to formalise the process of decision-making by estimating the expected costs and benefits from alternative scenarios or interventions. Decision makers use evidence from economic evaluations to make specific recommendations for coverage, reimbursement, and pricing decisions for a variety of health interventions, and to define best practice. The course introduces principles and practices for measuring the costs and effects of interventions, using measures such as Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) and Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). The course will enable candidates to understand and apply economic evaluation methods and it will provide a solid foundation for exploring more advanced approaches. With a focus on clinical decision making, candidates will learn transferable skills about the design and execution of economic evaluations.

This course will be delivered online over a period of five weeks in the Michaelmas Term and also the Summer Term. The course will be delivered as a combination lectures and seminars, totalling a minimum of 20 hours.

Students in MT will have access to lecture material delivered as short online videos. Seminars will take place online and students will work in small groups on structured learning activities set by the course lead.

Students in ST will have teaching delivered over 1 week during the June 2021 teaching block.

The formative assessment will require students to prepare a group presentation critically appraising a published study based on a few questions provided by the course leader.

Drummond M et al. Methods for the Economic Evaluation of Health Care Programmes. Oxford, OUP, 2005

Drummond M et al. Economic Evaluation in Health Care: Merging Theory with Practice, Oxford, OUP, 2002.

Gray A. Applied Methods of Cost-effectiveness Analysis in Healthcare (Handbooks in Health Economic Evaluation), Oxford, OUP, 2011.

Weinstein MC et al. Foundations of cost-effectiveness analysis for health and medical practices. N Eng J Med. 1977; 296 (13):716–21.

Russell LB et al. The role of cost-effectiveness analysis in health and medicine. JAMA. 1996; 276 (14): 1172–77.

Critical evaluation (80%) and report (20%).

Short report, proposal for an economic evaluation of a cardiovascular intervention (20%, 700 words).

Critical appraisal of a published economic evaluation from the cardiovascular sciences (80%, 2,000 words + completion of the CHEERS checklist).