Dictionary

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Addiction Treatment EconomicsConceptSUD Treatment Economics, Substance-Use Treatment Economics

Addiction treatment economics is the economic evaluation of treatments for substance use disorders, weighing their costs against health and crime outcomes.

Additive Interaction ScaleConceptAdditive Interaction, Risk-Difference Interaction

The additive interaction scale judges two exposures to interact when their joint risk difference departs from the sum of their separate risk differences.

AdherenceConceptPatient Concordance, Regimen Following

Adherence is how far a person's behaviour, such as taking medicines or following diet or lifestyle advice, matches recommendations agreed with a clinician.

Adherence OutcomeTermAdherence Measure, Compliance Outcome

A measure of the extent to which a patient follows a prescribed treatment regimen as recommended, such as taking medication at the correct dose.

Adjuvant TherapyTermAdjuvant Treatment, Post-Surgical Therapy

Treatment given after a primary treatment, most commonly surgery, to eliminate remaining cancer cells and reduce the risk of recurrence.

ADME StudiesConceptADME, ADME Profiling, Absorption Distribution Metabolism Excretion

ADME studies measure how a drug is absorbed, distributed, metabolised and excreted, informing dose adjustments for organ impairment and drug interactions.

Administrative BarrierConceptBureaucratic Barrier, Procedural Barrier, Red Tape

An administrative barrier is a paperwork, enrolment, renewal or approval requirement that deters or delays use of healthcare.

Administrative CensoringConceptEnd-of-Study Censoring, Administrative Right Censoring

Administrative censoring is right censoring that occurs when a trial's planned end of follow-up or data cut-off arrives before a patient has the event.

Administrative Cost RatioConceptACR, Expense Ratio

Administrative cost ratio is the share of an insurer's premium income, or a health system's spending, used for administration rather than claims or care.

Administrative DataConceptAdmin Data, Routinely-Collected Data

Administrative data are records made to run or pay for care, such as claims, hospital admissions and prescriptions, reused to measure costs and outcomes.

Administrative DatabaseTermAdmin Database, Administrative Claims Database

A large-scale collection of administrative data, such as insurance claims or government health records, made available for secondary research use.

Administrative FeasibilityConceptImplementation Feasibility, Institutional Feasibility

Administrative feasibility is whether the agencies that would run a health policy have the staff, systems and mandate to deliver it as designed.

Administrative SimplificationConceptAdmin Simplification, Red-Tape Reduction

Administrative simplification is policy to cut the cost of health system paperwork, such as claims, eligibility checks and prior authorisation.

Administrative WasteConceptAdmin Waste, Bureaucratic Waste, Administrative Overhead

Administrative waste is health care administrative spending that adds no value or costs more than needed, such as duplicate reporting or complex billing.

Admission ProcessTermPatient Intake, Inpatient Registration

The formal sequence of steps through which a patient is registered and accepted for inpatient care within a hospital.

Adolescent Mental Health EconomicsConceptYouth Mental Health Economics, Economics of Adolescent Mental Health

Adolescent mental health economics studies the costs, outcomes and value for money of mental health prevention and care for young people aged 10 to 19.

Adult Day CareTermAdult Day Services, Adult Day Program, Day Centre Care

A community programme providing supervised care and activities to adults during daytime hours, allowing family carers respite or continued employment.

Advance Care PlanningConceptACP, Future Care Planning

Advance care planning (ACP) is a process in which people discuss and record their goals and preferences for future medical care with family and clinicians.

Advance DirectiveTermAdvance Decision, Healthcare Directive

A legal document specifying an individual's preferences for future medical treatment, or designating a decision-maker, to be used if they cannot communicate.

Advanced Therapy Medicinal ProductConceptATMP, Gene and Cell Therapies

An advanced therapy medicinal product (ATMP) is an EU-regulated gene, cell or tissue-based medicine, often given once, whose lasting value HTA must judge.

Adverse Drug EventConceptADE, Drug-Related Injury

An adverse drug event (ADE) is harm to a patient from a medicine, whether caused by a medication error or by a reaction despite correct use.

Adverse Drug ReactionConceptADR, Side Effect, Drug Reaction

An adverse drug reaction (ADR) is a noxious, unintended response to a medicine, where a causal link to the drug is at least a reasonable possibility.

Adverse EventConceptAE, Adverse Medical Event

An adverse event (AE) is any unfavourable medical occurrence after treatment, caused by it or not; in patient safety, an injury caused by medical care.

Adverse Event CostTermAE Cost, Toxicity Management Cost, Side Effect Cost

The expense of managing a treatment's side effects, covering additional medical visits, hospitalisation, and supportive medications required.

Adverse Event RateConceptAE Rate, AE Frequency

Adverse event rate (AE rate) is the count of adverse events, or of patients with one, divided by the patients or person-time at risk in a stated period.

Adverse Event ReportingTermAE Reporting, Safety Reporting

The systematic process of documenting and communicating instances of patient harm from medical care, used to identify patterns and target improvement.

Adverse SelectionConceptAnti-Selection, Negative Selection

Adverse selection occurs when people who know they are higher risk buy more health or life insurance, which can raise premiums and drive out lower risks.

Affinity DiagramTermKJ Method, Thematic Clustering

A structured brainstorming tool grouping individual ideas or observations into related clusters based on natural theme, revealing underlying patterns.

AffordabilityConceptAbility to Pay, Financial Reach

The extent to which a person, household or payer can meet the cost of needed health care within available resources without unacceptable financial hardship or displacement of other priorities.

Affordability CriterionTermAffordability Standard, Budget Sustainability Criterion

A standard judging whether a new technology's aggregate cost is sustainable within a health system's resources, considered separately from cost-effectiveness.

Affordability ThresholdTermBudget-Impact Threshold, Total-Cost Ceiling

The level of budget impact beyond which a payer considers a new technology's total cost unsustainable, regardless of its individual cost-effectiveness.

Age RatingTermAge-Based Rating, Age-Banded Pricing

A method of setting insurance premiums that varies price by an enrollee's age, reflecting generally higher costs for older groups.

Age WeightingConceptAge Weights

Age weighting values a year of healthy life by the age at which it is lived, as in the original GBD DALY, which gave years in young adulthood most weight.

Agent-Based ModelConceptABM, Agent-Based Simulation

An agent-based model simulates heterogeneous individual entities and their interactions under explicit rules to examine how population-level outcomes emerge over time.

Aggregate Cost EstimationTermTop-Down Cost Estimation

An approach to estimating an intervention's cost using summary, population-level data rather than detailed patient-level resource-use records.

Aggregate Data Meta-AnalysisConceptAD Meta-Analysis, Summary Data Meta-Analysis

Aggregate data meta-analysis pools study-level summary results, such as effect estimates and standard errors, from several studies into one estimate.

Aggregate ModelTermSummary-Parameter Model, Population-Summary Model

A model representing a population using summary-level parameters, such as average transition probabilities, rather than tracking individual patients separately.

Aggregate Stop-LossConceptAggregate Excess Cover, Aggregate Claims Cover

Aggregate stop-loss is insurance that reimburses a self-funded employer for total health claims above an agreed attachment point in a plan year.

Aggregation LevelTermLevel of Aggregation, Model Granularity

The degree of detail at which a model represents its population, ranging from fully individual-level simulation to fully aggregated cohort averages.

Aging-Driven Cost GrowthTermAgeing-Driven Cost Growth, Demographic Cost Pressure

The portion of rising healthcare expenditure attributed to a population's increasing average age and the associated shift toward more complex conditions.

AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture (SOPS)TermAHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture, SOPS

A US standardised survey assessing staff perceptions of an organisation's patient safety culture, covering teamwork and communication openness.

AI Diagnostic ValueTermValue of AI Diagnostics, AI Diagnostic Assessment

An assessment of the clinical and economic value artificial intelligence diagnostic tools provide, covering accuracy, decision-making impact, and effect on costs.

AIFATermAgenzia Italiana del Farmaco, Italian Medicines Agency

The Italian Medicines Agency, the national regulatory and health technology assessment body responsible for drug approval, pricing, and reimbursement in Italy.

Air EmbolismTermGas Embolism, Venous Gas Embolism

A serious, generally preventable safety event in which air enters a patient's bloodstream, most commonly through improper intravenous line management.

Akaike Information CriterionConceptAIC, Akaike Criterion

Akaike information criterion (AIC) is a statistic ranking models fitted to the same data, such as survival curves in HTA, by fit penalised per parameter.

Alcohol Consumption RateTermPer-Capita Alcohol Intake, Population Alcohol Intake

A population-level measure of average alcohol intake, tracked as a key modifiable risk factor for chronic disease and injury.

Alcohol PolicyTermAlcohol Control Policy, Alcohol Harm Reduction Policy

Government or organisational policy reducing alcohol-related harm, covering taxation, minimum pricing, advertising restrictions, and treatment programme funding.

Alcohol Use EconomicsTermAlcohol Control Economics, Alcohol Economics

The application of health economic evaluation to alcohol consumption's health consequences, covering prevention, treatment, and policy interventions such as taxation.

Alert FatigueConceptAlarm Fatigue, Alert Desensitisation

A phenomenon in which providers become desensitised to computerised clinical alerts from excessive frequency, causing them to override even important ones.

All-Cause MortalityTermTotal Mortality, Overall Death Rate

The rate of death from any cause within a defined population, unlike cause-specific mortality, which measures deaths from one particular condition.