State-of-the-art principles and practices of medical economics

In an era of increasing constraints in health care expenditure, it has become necessary for the practising physician to utilise resources economically. Due to expenditure ceilings in many countries, the rational allocation of health care resources has become a central goal in health policy. Medical economics is the discipline which covers the issues of economic evaluation, policy and decision analysis and outcomes research. This paper discusses the fundamentals of this new type of research, highlighting the importance of such results in formulating health policy. Undoubtedly, medical economics will play a similar role as evidence-based medicine and clinical epidemiology in the continuous education within the medical community. This holds specially true for costly indications such as haemophilia and other coagulation disorders.