Dictionary
The Dictionary provides concise definitions of health economics terms, arranged alphabetically for quick reference. Use it to understand unfamiliar terminology or confirm the meaning of a specific term.
A
- Advanced Decision Analysis
- A decision analysis applying sophisticated modelling techniques, such as Markov models or discrete event simulation, to structure a complex decision under uncertainty.
- Adverse Drug Reaction
- A harmful and unintended response to a medication occurring at doses normally used for treatment, diagnosis, or disease prevention.
- Aggregate Data Meta-Analysis
- A technique combining summary results, such as reported means or event rates, from multiple studies into a single pooled estimate.
- Aging Economics
- The application of health economic evaluation to the health and long-term care needs of an ageing population, across prevention and service delivery.
- Air Embolism
- A serious, generally preventable safety event in which air enters a patient's bloodstream, most commonly through improper intravenous line management.
- Alcohol Use Economics
- The application of health economic evaluation to alcohol consumption's health consequences, covering prevention, treatment, and policy interventions such as taxation.
- Allocation Concealment
- A safeguard in randomised trials ensuring the assignment sequence is unknown to those enrolling participants until after enrolment, preventing selection bias.
- Antiplatelet Economics
- The application of health economic evaluation to antiplatelet medications preventing clot formation, weighing cost and bleeding risk against reduced cardiovascular events.
- Arrival Process
- The pattern by which entities, such as patients, enter a discrete event simulation over time, governed by a probability distribution of intervals.
- Attribute Definition
- The specification of the characteristics assigned to each entity within a discrete event simulation, such as a patient's age or diagnosis.
B
- Balance Billing Protection
- A regulatory safeguard preventing providers from billing patients the difference between their charge and insurance payment, particularly for emergency care.
- Baseline Risk
- The probability of a clinical event occurring without the intervention being studied, typically estimated from a trial's comparator arm or observational data.
- Blood Incompatibility
- A serious, generally preventable safety event where a patient receives a transfusion incompatible with their blood type, risking severe immune reaction.
C
- C. diff Rate
- A measure of the frequency of healthcare-associated Clostridioides difficile infections within a facility, tracking infection prevention and stewardship performance.
- Cancer Epidemiology
- A branch of epidemiology studying the distribution, causes, and patterns of cancer occurrence, including risk factors and prevention or screening strategies.
- Cancer Screening Coverage
- A measure of the proportion of an eligible population receiving recommended cancer screening tests, an indicator of preventive service access.
- Cardiac Rehabilitation
- A structured, supervised programme of exercise, education, and lifestyle counselling for patients recovering from a cardiac event, reducing future risk.
- Cardiac Rehabilitation Economics
- The application of health economic evaluation to structured cardiac rehabilitation, typically finding it low-cost relative to the hospitalisations it helps prevent.
- Cardiovascular Economics
- The broad application of health economic evaluation to conditions and interventions affecting the heart and blood vessels, from prevention through rehabilitation.
- Cardiovascular Risk Screening
- A population strategy assessing individuals for risk factors, such as blood pressure and cholesterol, to identify who would benefit from preventive intervention.
- CAUTI Rate
- A measure of the frequency of catheter-associated urinary tract infections within a facility, tracking infection prevention performance for catheter care.
- Censoring
- A situation in survival analysis where the exact time of an event is not observed, either because the study ended or follow-up was lost.
- Certificate of Need
- A regulatory requirement mandating government approval before major capital healthcare investments, intended to prevent unnecessary service duplication and control costs.
- Check Sheet
- A simple structured form used to systematically collect and organise data during a quality improvement effort, tallying event frequency.
- CLABSI Rate
- A measure of the frequency of central line-associated bloodstream infections within a facility, tracking infection prevention performance for catheter care.
- Clinical Risk Evaluation
- A risk evaluation focused on estimating a patient's probability of experiencing a specific clinical event, such as disease progression.
- Clinical Trial Data
- Data collected within a clinical trial's structured framework, including detailed outcome, adverse event, and often resource use measurements, under controlled conditions.
- Code Status
- A documented designation specifying which resuscitation and life-sustaining interventions should be attempted in the event of cardiac or respiratory arrest.
- Coding Compliance
- Adherence to established coding rules when assigning diagnosis and procedure codes for billing, preventing both underbilling and improper overbilling.
- Coding Error
- A mistake introduced when categorical data, such as diagnosis codes, are incorrectly assigned during data processing, potentially misclassifying patients or events.
- Common Terminology Criteria
- A standardised grading system classifying the severity of adverse events observed in trials, widely used across oncology and other areas.
- Comparative Effectiveness Research
- Research directly comparing the benefits and harms of alternative methods for preventing, diagnosing, treating, or monitoring a condition, typically using real-world data.
- Competing Risks
- A situation where a person is at risk of more than one type of event, so one event's occurrence prevents another from ever happening.
- Compliance ProgrammeCompliance Program
- A formal set of policies and procedures an organisation establishes to prevent, detect, and address violations of applicable laws.
- Composite Endpoint
- A trial outcome combining two or more individual events, such as death and hospitalisation, into a single measure, counted if any occurs.
- Composite Outcome
- An outcome combining two or more distinct events into a single measure, counted as occurring if any one component event takes place.
- Conditional Logic
- The rules embedded within a decision-analytic model determining how a variable or pathway depends on the values of other variables or events.
- Conditional Probability
- The probability that an event will occur given that another specified event has already occurred, calculated from their joint probability.
- Constant Hazard
- A survival pattern where the instantaneous risk of an event stays the same at every point in time, matching an exponential distribution.
- Coronary Disease Economics
- The application of health economic evaluation to conditions from narrowed or blocked coronary arteries, covering prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
- Correct Coding Initiative
- A US Medicare programme identifying and preventing inappropriate payment for services that should not be billed together, based on coding conventions.
- Corrective Action
- A step or set of steps taken to remedy an identified compliance deficiency or violation, intended to prevent its recurrence.
- Cost Avoidance
- A reduction in future spending achieved by preventing a costly event, such as hospitalisation, unlike a direct reduction of current spending.
- Cost-Effectiveness AnalysisCEA, cost effectiveness analysis
- Cost-effectiveness analysis compares healthcare alternatives by relating differences in their costs to differences in outcomes measured using the same natural unit, such as cases prevented or life-years gained.
- Cumulative Hazard
- The total accumulated risk of an event by a given point in time, found by integrating the instantaneous hazard rate up to that point.
- Cure Fraction
- The proportion of a population modelled as having no residual risk of the disease-specific event after successful treatment, effectively behaving as cured.
- Cure Fraction Model
- A survival model separating a population into a cured subgroup facing only background mortality and an uncured subgroup remaining at risk of the disease event.
- Cure Model
- A survival model assuming a defined proportion of a population will never experience the event of interest, distinguishing this cured group from those still at risk.
D
- Decision Tree
- A graphical and mathematical representation of a decision problem showing the sequence of choices and chance events leading to possible outcomes.
- Defibrillator Economics
- The application of health economic evaluation to implantable cardioverter-defibrillators, weighing device and implant cost against preventing sudden cardiac death.