Dictionary

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Clinical GuidelineConceptClinical Practice Guideline, Treatment Guideline

A clinical guideline is a set of care recommendations for a defined clinical situation, based on a systematic review of evidence on benefits and harms.

Clinical IntegrationConceptClinical Service Integration, Integrated Clinical Delivery

Clinical integration is the coordination of a patient's care across professionals, services and settings so that it runs as one continuous process.

Clinical MeaningfulnessConceptClinical Importance, Clinical Significance

Clinical meaningfulness is whether a treatment effect is large enough to matter to patients and change their care, not just statistically significant.

Clinical OutcomeConceptTreatment Outcome, Clinical Result

A clinical outcome is a result showing how a patient feels, functions or survives, such as stroke or death, used to judge benefit in economic evaluation.

Clinical Outcome AssessmentConceptCOA, Outcome Assessment

A clinical outcome assessment (COA) measures how a patient feels or functions, through patient, clinician or observer reports or a standardised task.

Clinical PathwayConceptClinical Care Pathway, Care Map

A clinical pathway is a structured multidisciplinary plan setting out the expected steps and timing of hospital care for a specific clinical problem.

Clinical PlausibilityConceptClinical Credibility, Clinical Realism

Clinical plausibility is the extent to which a health economic model's structure, inputs and results agree with clinical knowledge of the disease.

Clinical PracticeTermClinical Care, Medical Practice

In health economics, the delivery of care to patients by health professionals, the real-world setting whose effectiveness, costs and variation health economic evaluation seeks to inform.

Clinical Practice VariationConceptPractice Variation, Care Variation

Clinical practice variation is the difference in care that similar patients receive from different clinicians, hospitals or regions, warranted or not.

Clinical ResponseTermResponder Status, Response to Treatment

A measure of whether a patient has experienced a predefined, clinically meaningful improvement following treatment, often expressed as a responder proportion.

Clinical ReviewTermClinical Practice Review, Clinical Appraisal

An evaluation of the clinical evidence and practice patterns relevant to a technology or condition, typically part of a broader assessment.

Clinical StandardsTermClinical Care Standards, Care Quality Benchmark

The specific benchmarks established for evaluating the quality and appropriateness of clinical care delivered within a healthcare organisation.

Clinical TrialConceptClinical Study, Interventional Trial, Intervention Study, Therapeutic Trial

A clinical trial is a study that prospectively assigns people to health interventions to measure their effects, giving evidence for regulators and HTA.

Clinical Trial CostTermTrial Conduct Cost, Study Execution Cost, Trial Cost, Cost of Running a Trial, Research Trial Expense

The total expense of designing, conducting, and analysing a clinical trial, a substantial component of the overall cost of bringing a treatment to market.

Clinical Trial DataTermTrial Data, RCT Data

Data collected within a clinical trial's structured framework, including detailed outcome, adverse event, and often resource use measurements, under controlled conditions.

Clinical Trial DesignConceptRCT Design, Protocol Design, Trial Design, Trial Structural Plan, Trial Methodology Plan

Clinical trial design is the protocol plan for a trial's comparator, population, endpoints, follow-up and sample size, setting how far results inform HTA.

Clinical UtilityTermClinical Usefulness, Practical Utility

The degree to which using a test, biomarker, or intervention meaningfully improves patient outcomes in actual practice, beyond mere analytical accuracy.

Clinical Value MessageTermValue Message, Clinical Value Statement

A concise, evidence-based statement summarising a technology's key clinical benefits, developed to communicate value to clinicians and stakeholders.

Clinical WasteTermClinical Care Waste, Wasteful Clinical Spending

Healthcare resources expended on services providing little or no clinical benefit, distinct from administrative waste.

Clinician-Reported OutcomeConceptClinRO

A clinician-reported outcome (ClinRO) is a clinical outcome assessment in which a trained health professional rates the patient using clinical judgement.

Closed Loop SystemTermArtificial Pancreas, Automated Insulin Delivery

An automated diabetes technology that continuously monitors blood glucose and automatically adjusts insulin delivery through a connected pump without manual dosing.

Closed PanelTermClosed Network, Exclusive Provider Panel

A managed care network in which enrollees must receive care from a specific, limited group of employed or exclusively contracted providers.

Closed-Form Analytical MethodConceptClosed-Form Method, Analytic Solution

A closed-form analytical method solves a health economic model with a formula, such as a matrix inverse, instead of by simulation or random sampling.

Club GoodsConceptClub Good, Congestible Good, Toll Goods, Excludable Non-Rival Goods, Toll Good

Club goods are excludable goods a group can share without rivalry until congestion sets in, so users can be charged and membership limited.

Cluster AnalysisConceptClustering

Cluster analysis is an unsupervised method that sorts patients, providers or countries into groups whose members are more alike than those in other groups.

Cluster EffectConceptClustering Effect, Intracluster Correlation

A cluster effect is the tendency of patients in the same practice or hospital to have similar outcomes and costs, so their data are not independent.

Cluster RandomizationConceptCluster Randomisation, Group Randomisation

Cluster randomization allocates groups, such as hospitals or GP practices, to trial arms, so clinical and economic analyses must allow for clustering.

Co-Primary OutcomeConceptCo-Primary Endpoint, Coprimary Outcome

A co-primary outcome is one of two or more primary outcomes in a trial, each of which must show a significant treatment effect for the trial to succeed.

Coase TheoremConceptCoase's Theorem, Coasean Bargaining

The Coase theorem holds that, with clear property rights and no transaction costs, bargaining reaches an efficient outcome whoever holds the rights.

COBRA CoverageConceptCOBRA, Continuation Coverage

COBRA coverage is the US right to keep an employer group health plan for a limited time after job loss or another qualifying event, usually at full cost.

CochraneTermSystematic Review Organisation, Evidence Review Body

An international organisation producing systematic reviews of healthcare interventions to a standardised, rigorous methodology, widely regarded as a leading evidence source.

Code of ConductTermConduct Code, Ethics Code

A formal document outlining an organisation's expected ethical standards and behavioural expectations, typically covering conflicts of interest and billing integrity.

Code StatusTermResuscitation Status, DNR Status

A documented designation specifying which resuscitation and life-sustaining interventions should be attempted in the event of cardiac or respiratory arrest.

Coding AccuracyTermCoding Correctness, Code-Assignment Accuracy

The degree to which diagnosis and procedure codes assigned to a patient encounter correctly reflect the clinical care actually documented.

Coding ComplianceTermCoding Adherence, Billing Compliance

Adherence to established coding rules when assigning diagnosis and procedure codes for billing, preventing both underbilling and improper overbilling.

Coding ErrorTermMiscoding, Code Assignment Error

A mistake introduced when categorical data, such as diagnosis codes, are incorrectly assigned during data processing, potentially misclassifying patients or events.

CoercionConceptUndue Pressure, Compelled Participation

Coercion in health research is a threat of harm used to make someone take part against their will, so their consent is not voluntary and not valid.

Cognitive Bias ConceptConceptCognitive Bias, Judgement Bias

The cognitive bias concept is systematic error in judgement, often from mental shortcuts, that skews how patients, clinicians and experts weigh evidence.

Cognitive DeclineTermCognitive Impairment, Mental Decline

A reduction in mental abilities, including memory, attention, and problem-solving, ranging from normal ageing to severe impairment such as dementia.

Cognitive FunctionTermCognition, Mental Function, Cognitive Capacity, Cognitive Ability

A clinical outcome domain capturing mental processes, including memory, attention, and executive function, commonly measured using standardised neuropsychological tools.

Cognitively Impaired ResearchConceptResearch with Impaired Capacity, Diminished-Capacity Research

Cognitively impaired research is research with people whose impaired capacity may prevent valid consent, so proxy involvement and extra safeguards apply.

Cohen's dConceptCohen d

Cohen's d is a standardised effect size: the difference between two group means divided by their pooled standard deviation, used to compare studies.

CoherenceTermProbabilistic Consistency, Axiom Consistency

A property requiring a set of subjective probability judgements to satisfy the basic axioms of probability theory, such as summing to one.

Cohort DesignConceptCohort Study Design, Prospective Design

A cohort design is an observational study that follows people grouped by exposure or treatment forward from a common start to compare later outcomes.

Cohort ModelConceptCohort-Level Model

A cohort model is a health economic decision model that estimates mean costs and outcomes for a patient group as a whole, without simulating individuals.

Cohort SimulationConceptCohort-Level Simulation, Markov Cohort Run

Cohort simulation runs a Markov or other state-transition model by moving the expected shares of a hypothetical cohort between health states each cycle.

Cohort StudyTermLongitudinal Study, Prospective Study

An observational study following a group sharing a common exposure or characteristic forward in time to observe subsequent health outcomes.

Cohort TraceConceptMarkov Trace, State-Occupancy Trace

A cohort trace is the cycle-by-cycle record of a state-transition model’s expected cohort distribution across its health states under a specified strategy.

CoinsuranceConceptCo-insurance, Percentage Cost-Sharing

Coinsurance is the percentage of the allowed cost of a covered health service that an insured patient pays, usually after the deductible has been met.

Coinsurance MaximumTermCoinsurance Cap, Coinsurance Limit

The highest total amount an insured person will pay in coinsurance within a defined period, beyond which the insurer covers everything further.