Making sense of cost-effectiveness analyses in respiratory medicine: a practical guide for non-health economists

We live in a world of great advances in respiratory care, but at the same time, we are facing increasing budget constraints. In such a world, the use of any intervention is associated with "opportunity loss": the benefit forgone by not using alternative interventions. Take the example of biologicals for severe asthma (e.g. mepolizumab) or lung cancer (e.g. nivolumab), with annual costs of around EUR 15 000 and >EUR 100 000 per patient, respectively. The concept of opportunity loss applies whenever decisions are made, either by physicians in clinical practice who have to decide which treatment patients receive, or by health policymakers during the approval process of new interventions for market entrance. If resources are spent on these medications, it means that there will be less budget available for other interventions. In respiratory medicine, interventions could involve pharmacological treatments, but also new bronchoscopic procedures, biomarker tests, diagnostics or other health technologies [1–4].
Source: European Respiratory Journal - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Tags: ERJ Methods Source Type: research