MEDICAL DEVICE PRICES IN ECONOMIC EVALUATIONS.

Area of Science:

• Health Economics
• Medical Device Technology

Background:

• Economic evaluations are crucial for healthcare policy but not formally used for medical device procurement in Canada.
• Despite this, economic evaluations of medical devices are published in Canada.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the methods used for incorporating prices in Canadian economic evaluations of medical devices.
• To identify inconsistencies and suggest improvements in the economic analysis of medical device costs.

Main Methods:

• Review of economic concepts and methods in Canadian economic evaluations.
• Focus on the eleven most implanted medical devices from a Canadian perspective.

Main Results:

• Nineteen Canadian studies were identified for five of the eleven medical devices.
• Device costs represented a significant portion (average 44.1%) of total procedure costs.
• Standard costing methods for capital equipment were not used, and sensitivity analyses for device costs were limited and lacked real-world price data.

Conclusions:

• There is a lack of standardized approaches for incorporating medical device prices in economic evaluations in Canada.
• Improvements are needed in how device prices are integrated into economic analyses to enhance policy relevance.
• Standardized methods for cost estimation and sensitivity analysis are recommended.