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.
C
- Cost Identification
- The process of determining which categories of resource use should be included in an economic evaluation before quantities and unit costs are measured.
- Cost Valuation
- The process of assigning a monetary value to identified units of resource use, such as bed-days multiplied by unit cost.
D
- Data Input
- The process or interface through which external evidence, such as trial results or unit costs, is entered into a model to populate its parameters.
G
- Gross Costing
- A costing method that applies a single, average unit cost figure, typically from routine administrative data, to estimate total intervention cost.
L
- Linear Model Health
- A statistical or decision-analytic model in which inputs and outputs are related by a simple linear function, such as a constant per-unit cost.
- Lookup Table
- A data structure storing precomputed values, such as mortality rates or unit costs, indexed for quick retrieval within a health economic model.
N
- National Schedule of Reference Costs
- A standardised set of unit costs for healthcare services, published to enable consistent costing across an entire health system.
P
- Parameter Uncertainty
- Uncertainty arising from imperfect knowledge of the true value of an input parameter, such as a transition probability or unit cost.
R
- Reference Cost
- A standardised unit cost for a specific healthcare service, published by a health system to promote consistency in costing across providers.
- Resource Valuation
- The process of assigning a monetary value to a measured quantity of resource use, typically by multiplying it by a unit cost.
T
- Top-Down Costing
- A costing method that starts from total observed expenditure for a programme and divides it by units delivered to produce an average unit cost.
U
- Unit Cost
- The cost of producing or delivering a single unit of a good or service, such as the cost per hospital bed-day.
- Unit Cost Estimation
- The process of determining the cost of delivering a single, standardised unit of a healthcare service, such as an inpatient bed-day.