Special Issue "Health Economics"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Ulf-G. Gerdtham
Department of Clinical Sciences, Department of Economics, Lund University, P.O. Box 7082, S-220 07 Lund, Sweden
Website: http://www.lri.lu.se/en/research/healtheconomics
E-Mail:
Interests: health economics; health econometrics; inequalities in health; economics of health behaviour; international health expenditure; health system and organization

Dear Colleagues,

Health Economics can be defined as the application of the theories, concepts and techniques of economics to any issue related to health.

During the last decades there has been a growing interest in this field which partly can be explained by the reduced economic growth, deficits in public budgets and increased unemployment rates and partly by the rapid introduction of new and more expensive health care technologies. The increasing number of treatments that potentially can be used to improve health has led to a widening gap between what the health sector technically can achieve and what society is able and willing to pay. This has led to an increased attention to economic research questions in the health sector.

Health economics research focus particularly on issues within a number of different areas related to the health sector such as economics of public health, organization, financing and incentives of different actors related to the health sector, and methods for the economic evaluation of medical technologies and prevention.

This special issue is devoted to health economics as then represents a discipline on its own in economics research with strong relevance to significant issues covered by this journal and which also complement other disciplines research by other related aspects.

Prof. Dr. Ulf-G. Gerdtham
Guest Editor

Submission

• demand for health and health care
• inequalities in health
• health system and organization
• theories in health economics
• economic evaluations
• measurement of health
• willingness to pay

Type of Paper: Review
Title: Health Economics: A Methodological Primer
Author: Steven Simoens
Affiliation: Research Centre for Pharmaceutical Care and Pharmaco-economics, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, K.U. Leuven, Onderwijs en Navorsing 2 P.O. Box 521, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Abstract: This review article aims to provide an introduction to the methodology of health economic assessment of a health technology. Attention is paid to defining the fundamental concepts and terms that are relevant to health economics. The article describes the methodology underlying a cost study, an economic evaluation (type of economic evaluation, the cost-effectiveness plane, trial- and model-based economic evaluation, discounting, sensitivity analysis, incremental analysis), and a budget impact analysis. Key references and additional resources (suggested readings, scientific journals, international societies and databases) are provided for those readers who wish a more advanced understanding of health economic topics.

Type of Paper: Article
Title: Outcome Measurement in Economic Evaluations of Public Health Interventions: A Role for the Capability Approach?
Authors: Paula K. Lorgelly, Kenny Lawson, Elisabeth A.L. Fenwick and Andrew H. Briggs
Affiliation: Centre for Health Economics, Building 75, Monash University, Clayton VIC 3800, USA; E-Mail: Paula.Lorgelly@buseco.monash.edu.au (P.K.L.)
Abstract: Public health interventions are receiving increased attention from policy makers, and there has been a corresponding increase in the number of economic evaluations within the domain of public health. However, methods to evaluate public health interventions are less well established than those for medical interventions. Focusing on health as an outcome measure is likely to underestimate the impact of many public health interventions. This paper provides a review of outcome measures in public health; and describes the benefits of using the capability approach as a means to developing an all encompassing outcome measure.
Keywords: economic evaluation; outcome measures; public health; capability approach