Health economics is about making wise investments in health and health care. The purpose of this book is to make readers familiar with the principles, methods and pitfalls of health economic evaluations. These evaluations help to make choices and set priorities in favour of those investments (for prevention, diagnosis, cure or care) that give the greatest return on health for money spent.
The results of these evaluations are increasingly a subject of focus and discussion in scientific journals, at congresses and in health policy making. This book will help everyone who is involved in health and health care to understand the methods used in these evaluations and to interpret their results. In this second edition, with numerous recent examples, attention is also given to relatively new methods (including methods to measure quality of life) and a number of unavoidable trends (such as the use of real world evidence). Readers do not need a basic knowledge of economics.
