Principles of cost-effectiveness studies and their use in haematology

Health economics is about providing the population with the maximum health possible under budget constraint. The most common method to present the result of an economic evaluation is the calculation of the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). It is defined by the difference in cost between two possible technologies, divided by the difference in their effect. It represents the amount of money required to gain one additional unit of health for the population. Economic evaluations are based upon 1) medical evidence of the health benefits of technologies and 2) the value of resources used to achieve these health benefits. An economic evaluation is one type of information that can be used by policy makers, in combination with data on organisation, financing, and incentives to decide on the adoption of innovative technologies.