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.
H
- Hierarchical Condition Category
- A US Medicare Advantage risk classification system grouping diagnosis codes into hierarchical, clinically related categories to predict future healthcare costs.
- High Reliability Organization
- An organisation operating in a high-risk environment that consistently achieves exceptionally low serious failure rates through specific cultural characteristics.
- Hosmer-Lemeshow Test
- A goodness of fit test assessing how well a logistic regression model's predicted probabilities match observed outcome frequencies across risk groups.
- Hypertension Management
- The clinical process of diagnosing, treating, and monitoring high blood pressure, combining lifestyle change and drug therapy tailored to cardiovascular risk.
- Hypoglycemia Economics
- The application of health economic evaluation to episodes of abnormally low blood glucose, a risk particularly associated with insulin therapy.
I
- Incidence Rate
- A measure of disease frequency calculated as new cases divided by total person-time at risk observed, accounting for varying follow-up lengths.
- Incidence Rate RatioIRR
- A measure comparing the incidence rate of an outcome between two groups, accounting for differences in total person-time at risk.
- Independent Censoring
- A form of censoring in which the reason observation ends is unrelated to a participant's underlying risk, satisfying standard survival analysis assumptions.
- Informative Censoring
- A form of censoring in which the reason observation ends is related to a participant's underlying risk, violating standard survival analysis assumptions.
- Informed Consent for Research
- The process of providing a potential participant sufficient information about a study's purpose, procedures, risks, and benefits to make a voluntary decision.
- Informed Refusal
- A patient's decision to decline recommended treatment after being given sufficient information about its risks, benefits, and alternatives.
- Institutional Review Board
- A formally constituted committee responsible for reviewing and approving human subjects research, ensuring risks are minimised and informed consent is adequate.
- Insurance Value
- A component of a technology's value reflecting the benefit patients receive from reduced financial risk, distinct from direct clinical benefit.
- Interpretation Error
- A mistake arising when correctly calculated results are misunderstood or miscommunicated, such as mistaking a relative risk for an absolute risk difference.
J
- Just Culture
- An organisational approach distinguishing human error, at-risk behaviour, and reckless behaviour, applying a calibrated response to each rather than uniform blame.
L
- Life Table Method
- A survival technique dividing follow-up into fixed intervals and calculating the proportion of at-risk patients surviving each, accounting for censoring.
- Lipid Management
- The clinical process of assessing and treating blood cholesterol and lipid levels to reduce cardiovascular risk, combining counselling and statin therapy.
- Low-Value Care
- Healthcare services providing little or no clinical benefit relative to cost, or carrying harm risk exceeding likely benefit.
M
- Machine Learning in Healthcare
- The application of machine learning techniques to healthcare problems, covering diagnostic support, treatment recommendation, and predictive risk modelling.
- Major Molecular Response
- A response threshold in chronic myeloid leukaemia representing a substantial reduction in detectable disease-associated genetic material, linked to low progression risk.
- Mass Screening
- A screening programme offered to an entire defined population regardless of individual risk factors, unlike targeted screening of higher-risk subgroups.
- Mini-HTA
- A simplified, abbreviated form of assessment for use at hospital or department level, typically applied to lower-cost or lower-risk technologies.
- Mixture Cure Model
- A cure model treating the population as a mixture of a cured fraction facing only background mortality and an uncured fraction remaining at risk.
- Mortality Measure
- A quality indicator assessing patient death rate associated with a condition, procedure, or hospitalisation, typically risk-adjusted for patient severity.
- Multiplicative Scale
- A framework assessing whether two exposures interact by examining whether their combined effect on relative risk differs from the product of each.
- Multiplicity
- The challenge arising when a study conducts multiple tests or comparisons on the same data, raising the overall risk of a false positive.
N
- Non-Informative Censoring
- A form of censoring in which its timing provides no information about a participant's underlying risk, satisfying the assumption standard survival methods require.
- Number Needed to HarmNMH
- The number of patients who would need exposure to a treatment or risk factor for one additional patient to experience an adverse outcome.
- Nutrition Economics
- The application of health economic evaluation to dietary interventions and nutrition policy, drawing on nutritional epidemiology linking diet to disease risk.
O
- Occupational Health Policy
- Government or organisational policy addressing workplace health and safety risks, covering regulatory standards and workers' compensation programmes.
- Osteoporosis Economics
- The application of health economic evaluation to osteoporosis, covering screening, preventive medication, and fracture prevention in at-risk populations.
- Out-of-Pocket Model
- A financing arrangement in which patients pay directly for care at the point of service, with little or no pooled prepayment to spread risk.
P
- Partial Capitation
- A capitation arrangement in which a provider assumes financial risk for only a subset of services, such as primary care alone.
- Patient Heterogeneity
- Variation among individual patients in characteristics such as age or disease severity that leads to different treatment responses or underlying risk.
- Patient Safety
- The absence of preventable harm to a patient during healthcare, and reduction of unnecessary harm risk to an acceptable minimum.
- Peripheral Artery Disease
- A condition in which narrowed arteries reduce blood flow to the limbs, usually the legs, risking pain and complications such as amputation.
- Pharmacogenomics
- The study of how an individual's genetic makeup affects their response to specific drugs, covering both effectiveness and adverse reaction risk.
- Physical Inactivity Rate
- A measure of the proportion of a population not meeting recommended physical activity guidelines, a modifiable chronic disease risk factor.
- Pooling Equilibrium
- A market outcome in which different risk types make the same choice, so a firm cannot distinguish between them from behaviour alone.
- Population Analytics
- The application of data analysis to understand health patterns and needs across an entire defined patient population, supporting risk stratification.
- Population Health Management
- An approach focusing on improving outcomes for an entire defined patient population, incorporating proactive outreach, risk stratification, and coordinated care.
- Potentially Inappropriate Medication
- A medication generally considered to pose an unfavourable risk-benefit balance for a specific population, most commonly older adults, per expert criteria.
- Predicted Cost
- An estimate of expected future healthcare expenditure generated using a risk adjustment model incorporating demographics, diagnoses, and prior utilisation.
- Predictive Analytics Health
- The specific application of predictive analytics to healthcare data, forecasting clinical outcomes and identifying high-risk patients for proactive care management.
- Pregnant Women Research
- Research involving pregnant women, subject to additional ethical considerations given the potential for risks or benefits to affect both mother and fetus.
- Prenatal Screening
- Testing conducted during pregnancy to assess the risk of genetic conditions or birth defects, informing further diagnostic testing or pregnancy management.
- Preventive Therapy
- Treatment given to individuals without clinically apparent disease but at elevated risk, intended to prevent or delay the disease's onset.
- Preventive Treatment
- Treatment given to reduce the risk of a disease developing, encompassing both medications and procedures for individuals without clinically apparent disease.
- Principal-Agent Problem in Healthcare
- The specific version of the principal-agent problem in the physician-patient relationship, where clinical expertise gaps create both helpful guidance and risk of distorted recommendations.
- Prior UtilisationPrior Utilization
- An individual's past pattern of healthcare service use, commonly used as a predictor within risk adjustment models of future costs.