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 Effectiveness Research
- Effectiveness research applying sophisticated statistical methods, such as instrumental variable analysis or propensity score matching, to estimate real-world treatment performance.
- Applied Effectiveness Research
- Effectiveness research conducted within a specific clinical or policy setting rather than as a general methodological exercise.
- Average Cost-Effectiveness
- A measure comparing an intervention's total cost to its total effect, without reference to an alternative comparator.
- Average Cost-Effectiveness RatioACER
- The total cost of an intervention divided by its total health effect, calculated for each option rather than as a comparison.
C
- Clinical Effectiveness Research
- Effectiveness research focused on clinical outcomes, such as symptom control or disease progression, observed under routine practice conditions.
- Clinical Effectiveness Review
- A systematic evaluation of available clinical evidence regarding a technology's efficacy and safety, foundational to a broader assessment.
- Comparative Effectiveness Evidence
- Evidence directly comparing the relative benefits and harms of alternative interventions, typically from head-to-head trials or observational studies.
- 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.
- Comparative Effectiveness Study
- A research study directly comparing the real-world benefits and harms of two or more alternative interventions for a clinical condition.
- Comprehensive Effectiveness Research
- Effectiveness research examining multiple outcome domains and patient subgroups at once rather than a single endpoint in a single population.
- Contemporary Effectiveness Research
- Effectiveness research conducted using current treatment comparators and patient populations rather than those from an earlier era of practice.
- Cost-Effectiveness
- A property describing the relationship between an intervention's cost and its health effect relative to an alternative, usually summarised as an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio.
- Cost-Effectiveness Acceptability
- The probability that an intervention offers good value for money at a given willingness-to-pay threshold, accounting for uncertainty in the cost and effect estimates.
- Cost-Effectiveness Acceptability Curve (CEAC)CEAC
- A graph plotting the probability an intervention is cost-effective against a range of possible values for the cost-effectiveness threshold.
- Cost-Effectiveness Acceptability FrontierCEAF
- A curve showing, across willingness-to-pay thresholds, the probability that the option with the highest expected net benefit at each threshold is truly optimal.
- 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.
- Cost-Effectiveness Criterion
- The specific standard, typically a threshold, an assessment body uses to judge whether a technology's ICER represents acceptable value for money.
- Cost-Effectiveness Frontier
- The set of non-dominated interventions on a cost-effectiveness plane, connecting options offering the best available combination of cost and effect.
- Cost-Effectiveness League Table
- A ranked list comparing incremental cost-effectiveness ratios across many separate studies, intended to help prioritise resource allocation across a health system.
- Cost-Effectiveness Plane
- A graph plotting an intervention's incremental cost against its incremental effect relative to a comparator, cost on the vertical axis and effect on the horizontal.
- Cost-Effectiveness Policy
- A policy analysis approach comparing costs and non-monetary outcomes, such as health gains, without converting outcomes into monetary terms.
- Cost-Effectiveness Threshold
- A cost-effectiveness threshold is a benchmark used to judge whether the additional health produced by an intervention is worth its additional cost, usually expressed as an amount per QALY or another unit of health outcome.
D
- Digital Cost-Effectiveness
- The application of cost-effectiveness analysis to digital health interventions, such as mobile health apps or remote monitoring platforms.
- Distributional Cost-EffectivenessDCEA
- An extension of cost-effectiveness analysis examining how an intervention's costs and health effects are distributed across population subgroups, such as by income.
E
- Effectiveness
- The extent to which an intervention produces a beneficial result under real-world, routine practice conditions, unlike efficacy, measured under controlled trial conditions.
- Effectiveness Evaluation
- An assessment of how well a treatment performs under routine clinical practice conditions, typically using observational data or pragmatic trial designs.
- Effectiveness Evidence
- Data demonstrating how well an intervention performs under real-world practice conditions, unlike efficacy evidence from controlled trial conditions.
- Effectiveness Outcome
- A clinical outcome measured under real-world, routine practice conditions, reflecting how a treatment performs across a diverse patient population.
- Effectiveness Study
- A research study assessing how well an intervention performs under real-world, routine clinical practice conditions, typically with broader eligibility and less monitoring.
- Efficacy-Effectiveness Gap
- The observed difference between a treatment's trial-demonstrated benefit and its actual benefit once used in routine clinical practice.
- Emerging Effectiveness Research
- Effectiveness research applied to a newly introduced treatment or technology for which real-world performance data are still limited.
- Essential Effectiveness Research
- Effectiveness research restricted to the core outcomes needed to inform a coverage or clinical practice decision.
- Evidence-Based Effectiveness Research
- Effectiveness research grounded in systematically collected real-world data rather than clinical impression or extrapolation from trial results.
- Experimental Effectiveness Research
- Effectiveness research using pragmatic trial designs that test a treatment under conditions closer to routine practice than a traditional explanatory trial.
- Extended Cost-EffectivenessECEA
- A form of economic evaluation that extends standard cost-effectiveness analysis by incorporating financial risk protection and the distribution of costs and benefits by income.
F
- Foundational Effectiveness Research
- The core approach to evaluating real-world treatment performance, distinguishing efficacy, shown under controlled trial conditions, from effectiveness, observed in routine practice.
- Fundamental Effectiveness Research
- Effectiveness research limited to the most basic comparison of a treatment's real-world performance against a single relevant alternative.
G
- Generalized Cost-EffectivenessGCEA
- A form of cost-effectiveness analysis comparing a broad set of interventions against a common null counterfactual rather than against current practice.
I
- Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio (ICER)ICER
- The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio, or ICER, is incremental cost divided by incremental effectiveness, expressing the additional cost per additional unit of outcome when ratio interpretation is meaningful.
- Incremental Effectiveness
- Incremental effectiveness is the difference in health outcomes between an intervention and its comparator, calculated in a consistent outcome unit and comparison direction.
- Integrated Effectiveness Research
- Effectiveness research that combines clinical, economic, and patient-reported data into a single evaluation rather than separate analyses.
- International Effectiveness Research
- Effectiveness research comparing treatment performance across countries with different health systems and patient populations.
M
- Marginal Cost-Effectiveness
- The additional cost required to produce one more unit of health effect at the margin of an intervention's current scale, distinct from its average.
- mHealth Cost-Effectiveness
- An assessment of the cost-effectiveness of mobile health apps used to support disease management, monitoring, or health behaviour change.
- Modern Effectiveness Research
- Effectiveness research incorporating current data sources, such as electronic health records and claims data, into evaluating real-world treatment performance.
N
- Novel Effectiveness Research
- Effectiveness research using a newly developed analytical method not previously applied to evaluating real-world treatment performance.
P
- Practical Effectiveness Research
- Effectiveness research designed to produce directly usable findings for clinicians or policymakers, prioritising feasibility over methodological completeness.
- Probability of Cost-Effectiveness
- The likelihood, given uncertainty in the cost and effect estimates, that an intervention's ICER falls below a specified willingness-to-pay threshold.
R
- Relative Effectiveness
- A measure comparing how well a treatment performs against an alternative under real-world practice conditions, unlike relative efficacy measured under trial conditions.
S
- Sectoral Cost-Effectiveness
- An assessment of an intervention's cost-effectiveness across an entire health sector rather than in isolation, often against a common null counterfactual.