PAM 3870

Economic Evaluations in Health Care

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2021-2022.

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.

Permission Note Enrollment limited to: undergraduate students.
Prerequisites/Corequisites Recommended prerequisite: ECON 1110 or equivalent, PAM 2100 or equivalent.

Distribution Category (SBA-HE)

• 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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