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Use of pharmacoeconomics in prescribing research. Part 4: is cost‐utility analysis a useful tool?
Author(s) -
Brinsmead R.,
Hill S.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of clinical pharmacy and therapeutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.622
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1365-2710
pISSN - 0269-4727
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2710.2003.00469.x
Subject(s) - pharmacoeconomics , cost–benefit analysis , cost–utility analysis , management science , value (mathematics) , quality (philosophy) , appeal , risk analysis (engineering) , medicine , computer science , cost effectiveness , intensive care medicine , economics , political science , law , ecology , philosophy , epistemology , machine learning , biology
Summary This paper is the fourth in the ‘Research Note’ series describing various aspects of pharmacoeconomics in prescribing research. This article describes cost‐utility analysis, and how it can be incorporated into pharmacoeconomics. While this approach has intuitive appeal, the uncertainties about the methods for estimating utilities mean that the value of cost‐utility analysis in prescribing research is still to be established. Importantly, cost‐utility analysis may not capture aspects of quality of life that enable meaningful comparisons between prescribing choices at an individual or societal level.