Economic analyses of blood safety and transfusion medicine interventions: a systematic review

Economic evaluations are increasingly common in blood safety and transfusion medicine. We sought to summarize and review economic evaluations of donated blood interventions conducted in the United States. By using computer database searches, we identified 19 studies that reported both cost and health benefit results, and relative to each other, we rated the quality of their design and reporting. We classified 6 of the studies as having high quality, 10 as having fair quality, and 3 as having poor quality. Several strengths and limitations in economic evaluations of blood safety and transfusion medicine interventions were identified. Four key improvements can increase the quality of literature in this discipline. We believe researchers should (1) provide more explicit detail on cost parameters in each study and the methods used to obtain them; (2) adopt a clear analysis perspective relevant to decision makers that captures all key costs and consequences, such as the societal perspective; (3) use a consistent approach to reporting sensitivity analyses; and (4) place greater reliance on graphical presentation of results including sensitivity analyses because a large amount of information can be conveyed in relatively simple figures, leaving space to discuss the impact of important analysis assumptions and applicability of the results to other settings.