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.
B
- Benefit RatingClinical Benefit Classification, Therapeutic Benefit Grade
- A formal classification reflecting a technology's clinical benefit magnitude relative to existing options, used to inform pricing and reimbursement.
C
- Certainty CriterionConfidence Criterion, Evidence Confidence Standard
- A standard assessing the degree of confidence placed in evidence supporting an assessment conclusion, closely related to GRADE evidence certainty.
- Certainty of EvidenceEvidence Certainty, GRADE Certainty
- A judgement, made using a structured framework such as GRADE, about how confident decision-makers can be that an estimated effect reflects the truth.
- Conditional Recommendation
- Within frameworks such as GRADE, a recommendation indicating benefits probably outweigh harms but with less certainty, giving patient preferences a larger role.
D
- Domain
- A specific dimension or category within a broader evaluation framework, such as the certainty or consistency domains within GRADE.
E
- Evidence Rating
- A formal classification of evidence quality or certainty, typically using a framework such as GRADE, to help weight evidence appropriately.
G
- GRADE
- An abbreviation for the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation framework, a widely adopted system for rating evidence certainty.
H
- High-Quality Evidence
- Within GRADE, a rating indicating strong confidence that the true effect lies close to the reported estimate, typically from well-conducted trials.
I
- Imprecision
- A GRADE evidence quality domain assessing whether a study's confidence intervals are narrow enough to support a confident conclusion about the true effect.
- Indirectness
- A GRADE evidence quality domain assessing whether the population, intervention, comparator, or outcome studied differs meaningfully from those relevant to the actual decision.
L
- Low-Quality Evidence
- Within GRADE, a rating indicating limited confidence that the true effect matches the reported estimate, typically from observational or flawed studies.
M
- Moderate-Quality Evidence
- Within GRADE, a rating indicating moderate confidence the true effect is close to the estimate but could differ substantially, from trials with some limitations.
R
- Recommendation Strength
- Within GRADE, a judgement of how confident guideline developers are that a recommendation's benefits outweigh its harms, expressed as strong or weak.
S
- Smart Device Health
- A category of connected electronic devices with embedded computing capability used to monitor or manage health, from fitness trackers to medical-grade devices.
- Strong Recommendation
- Within GRADE, a recommendation indicating benefits clearly outweigh harms with high confidence, such that most patients would choose to follow it.
V
- Very Low-Quality Evidence
- Within GRADE, the lowest certainty rating, indicating the true effect is likely substantially different from the reported estimate, from very weak studies.
W
- Weak Recommendation
- Within GRADE, a conditional recommendation indicating benefits probably outweigh harms with less certainty, so patients might reasonably choose differently.
- Wearable Device Health
- The specific application of wearable device technology within healthcare, covering consumer fitness devices and clinically validated medical-grade monitoring devices.