PAM 3870

Economic Evaluations in Health Care

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2014-2015.

This course covers economic evaluation methods used for decisions in the health care sector and health policy.  Economic evaluations include cost analysis, cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, and cost-utility analysis.  The course discusses how to measure opportunity costs, monetary benefits, and health outcomes such as quality-adjusted life years.  Actual economic evaluations of pharmaceuticals, health care and public health interventions, and health and safety policy are reviewed and critiqued.

When Offered Spring.

Prerequisites/Corequisites Recommended prerequisites: ECON 1110 or equivalent, PAM 2100 or equivalent.

Comments Co-meets with PAM 5870.

• Identify differences between economic evaluation methods and analyze when it is appropriate to use cost-analysis, cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis or cost-utility analysis.
• Identify and evaluate the opportunity costs associated with the resources used as the result of health policies and health care interventions.
• Calculate health gains in terms of natural units such as life years gained and utility-based measures such as quality-adjusted life years gained.
• Analyze the roles of time discounting and uncertainty in economic evaluations of health.

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