How is health economics relevant to transplant clinicians?

Decision making is complex and difficult in clinical practice. Clinicians are often faced with a large range of possible alternative decision options, each with their own consequences and trade-offs. Health economics methods enable informed decision making on how best to allocate limited resources that could lead to most health gains. Economic evaluation in particular is highly relevant in transplantation medicine. Transplantation is an expensive intervention, but it improves the quality of life and survival of people with chronic diseases. The balance between health care resource use and the optimal health gains is useful not only to decision-makers, but also to consumers, clinicians, and researchers. This article is an overview of the concepts of economic evaluation in the setting of transplantation and highlights the applicability of these concepts in clinical transplantation.