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.

1–50 of 273 terms matching “Event”

A

Accelerated Failure TimeAFT: A class of survival models assuming covariates act multiplicatively on time itself, speeding or slowing progression to an event, unlike a Cox model.
Actuarial Projection: An estimate of future events, such as mortality, morbidity, or claims costs, based on statistical analysis of historical data patterns.
Administrative Censoring: A form of right censoring occurring because a study reaches its planned end date before every participant has experienced the event of interest.
Adverse Drug Event: An injury from drug use, covering both preventable medication errors and non-preventable adverse reactions occurring even when used correctly.
Adverse Event: An injury caused by medical management, rather than a patient's underlying disease, resulting in prolonged hospitalisation, disability, or death.
Adverse Event Cost: The expense of managing a treatment's side effects, covering additional medical visits, hospitalisation, and supportive medications required.
Adverse Event Rate: A measure of how frequently patients experience unintended harm from medical care, rather than their underlying condition, within a defined population.
Adverse Event Reporting: The systematic process of documenting and communicating instances of patient harm from medical care, used to identify patterns and target improvement.

C

Cancer Prevention Economics: The application of health economic evaluation to reducing cancer incidence, spanning vaccination against cancer-causing infections, lifestyle programmes, and chemoprevention.
Cardiovascular Prevention: Interventions reducing cardiovascular disease incidence by modifying risk factors, such as blood pressure, cholesterol, and smoking, spanning public health and clinical measures.
Competing Events: A situation in a simulation model where several distinct events could occur next for an entity, requiring the model to determine which happens first.
Cvd Prevention Economics: The application of health economic evaluation to cardiovascular disease prevention, spanning lifestyle programmes, preventive medication, and population health policy.

D

Discrete Event Model: A simulation model representing a system as a sequence of distinct events at specific times, with the system's state changing only at each event.
Discrete Event Simulation: A simulation technique tracking individual entities through a sequence of discrete events, with the clock advancing directly from one event to the next.
Disease Prevention: Actions taken to reduce the likelihood a disease will occur, progress, or cause complications, covering primary, secondary, and tertiary approaches.

E

Event: A specific occurrence within a simulation model that changes the state of the system at a defined point in time.
Event Definition: The precise specification of what counts as a countable clinical or economic event within a decision-analytic model.
Event Probability: The likelihood that a specific clinical or economic event will occur within a defined period, used as an input across decision-analytic models.
Event Queue: The ordered list of scheduled future events awaiting execution within a discrete event simulation, sorted by the time each is due to occur.
Event Structure: The overall arrangement of clinical and economic events within a decision-analytic model, including how they relate to one another over time.
Event-Free Survival: A time-to-event outcome measured from treatment start until any of a predefined set of significant events, such as progression or death, whichever comes first.

F

Falls Prevention Economics: The application of health economic evaluation to programmes reducing falls among older adults, comparing prevention costs against downstream injury costs such as hip fractures.

I

Infection Prevention Economics: The application of health economic evaluation to strategies preventing infections before they occur, spanning vaccination, hygiene promotion, and environmental interventions.
Injury Prevention Economics: The application of health economic evaluation to programmes reducing unintentional and intentional injuries, spanning road, workplace, and violence prevention.

M

Mental Health Prevention: Interventions aimed at preventing mental health conditions or reducing their severity through early identification, spanning universal and targeted approaches.

N

Never Event: A serious, largely preventable safety event that should essentially never occur if established protocols are followed, such as wrong-site surgery.

P

Potentially Preventable Event: An adverse outcome, such as a readmission, that could plausibly have been avoided through appropriate care, unlike a disease's natural progression.
Prevented FractionPF: The proportion of disease cases avoided in a population due to a protective exposure or intervention, the counterpart to the attributable fraction.
Prevention Economics: The broad application of health economic evaluation to interventions preventing disease onset or progression, spanning primary and secondary prevention.
Prevention Policy: Government or organisational policy specifically aimed at preventing disease onset or progression, spanning immunisation, screening, and health promotion.
Prevention Quality Indicator: A standardised measure assessing hospital admission rates for conditions considered preventable with adequate primary care access.
Preventive Intervention: Any programme or treatment intended to prevent disease onset or progression, spanning vaccination, screening, and lifestyle modification.
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.
Primary Prevention: Preventive intervention aimed at stopping disease onset in people who have not yet developed it, unlike secondary prevention's early detection focus.
Primary Prevention Economics: The application of health economic evaluation specifically to interventions preventing disease onset in people who have not yet developed the condition.

S

Secondary Prevention: Preventive intervention aimed at detecting and treating disease early, before significant harm, unlike primary prevention's aim of stopping onset entirely.
Secondary Prevention Economics: The application of health economic evaluation specifically to interventions detecting and treating disease at an early, typically more treatable stage.
Sentinel Event: An unexpected occurrence involving death or serious injury unrelated to a patient's underlying illness, occurring within a healthcare organisation.
Sentinel Event Rate: A measure of the frequency of unexpected occurrences involving death or serious injury unrelated to a patient's underlying illness.
Serious Adverse Event: An untoward medical occurrence during research or treatment resulting in death, life-threatening risk, hospitalisation, or persistent significant disability, per international guidance.
Serious Reportable Event: A formally catalogued category of serious, largely preventable safety events, such as wrong-site surgery, identified for standardised public reporting.
Serious Safety Event: A patient safety event causing significant harm, one of the more severe categories within a broader safety event hierarchy.
Suicide Prevention: Interventions and policies reducing suicide incidence, covering crisis hotlines, means restriction policies, and targeted clinical care for at-risk individuals.
Suicide Prevention Economics: The application of health economic evaluation to suicide prevention programmes, weighing implementation cost against the value of preventing loss of life.

T

Tertiary Prevention: Preventive intervention aimed at reducing the impact of already established disease, such as rehabilitation preventing further complications or disability.
Tertiary Prevention Economics: The application of health economic evaluation to interventions reducing the impact of already established disease, such as rehabilitation preventing further complications.
Time-to-Event: Outcome data recording the duration until a specific event of interest occurs, such as disease progression or death, possibly censored.
Time-to-Event Analysis: Statistical methods analysing data on the time until a specific event occurs, such as death, while appropriately handling censored observations.
Treatment-Emergent Adverse Event: An adverse event occurring or worsening during a trial period following study treatment administration, regardless of whether causally related.