Dictionary

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Healthcare Sector PerspectiveTermHealth Sector Perspective, Health Care Sector Viewpoint, Health Care System Perspective, System Perspective, Payer-System Viewpoint, Third-Party Payer View

An analytic viewpoint including costs and outcomes across the healthcare system broadly, but still excluding costs falling entirely outside the health sector.

Healthcare System CostTermSystem-Wide Cost, Total System Cost

The total expense incurred across an entire healthcare system providing care, covering all payers and providers, unlike a single payer's narrower perspective.

Healthcare-Associated InfectionTermHAI, Nosocomial Infection

An infection a patient develops during care in a healthcare facility, not present or incubating at admission, largely preventable.

Healthy Life ExpectancyConceptHLE, Disability-Adjusted Life Expectancy

A population health measure expressing the average years an individual is expected to live in good health, adjusting for time in disability.

Healthy Life YearsTermHLY, Years in Good Health

A summary population health measure expressing the number of years an individual is expected to live in good health.

Healthy Year EquivalentConceptHYE, Lifetime Health Equivalent

An alternative to the QALY deriving its valuations directly from a sequence of health states over a lifetime, rather than combining separate utility values.

Heart FailureTermCardiac Failure, CHF

A chronic condition in which the heart cannot pump blood effectively enough to meet the body's needs, causing frequent hospitalisation and reduced life expectancy.

Hedges' gConceptCorrected Standardised Mean Difference, Bias-Corrected Effect Size, Hedges g, Hedges’ g

Hedges' g is a standardised mean difference, the gap between two group means divided by their pooled standard deviation, corrected for small-sample bias.

HepatotoxicityTermLiver Toxicity, Drug-Induced Liver Injury

An adverse effect in which a drug or treatment damages the liver, ranging from mild, reversible enzyme changes to severe liver failure.

Herd ImmunityTermPopulation Immunity, Community Immunity, Herd Effect, Indirect Protection, Community Protection

A state where a sufficiently high proportion of a population is immune to a disease that transmission is substantially reduced even among the susceptible.

Herd Immunity ThresholdTermCritical Immunity Threshold, HIT

The proportion of a population that must be immune to achieve herd immunity, mathematically related to a pathogen's basic reproduction number.

Heterogeneity AnalysisTermSubgroup Variation Study, Effect Heterogeneity Study

An examination of how a model's results vary across different patient subgroups, unlike parameter uncertainty concerning imprecision in a single average population value.

Heterogeneity AssessmentConceptHeterogeneity Testing, I-Squared Assessment, Consistency Assessment, Cross-Study Consistency Check, Homogeneity Assessment

Heterogeneity assessment evaluates the nature, extent, and possible causes of differences in effects or outcomes across studies, populations, or settings.

Heterogeneous Treatment EffectConceptHTE, Treatment Effect Variation, Treatment Effect Heterogeneity

Variation in the size or direction of a treatment's effect across individuals or subgroups, so the overall average may not fit any one patient.

Heuristics ConceptTermHeuristic, Mental Shortcut

A mental shortcut that simplifies complex decision-making by substituting a simple rule of thumb for exhaustive analysis.

Hidden Markov ModelConceptHMM, Latent Markov Model

A statistical model in which the true underlying state cannot be directly observed, only indicated indirectly and probabilistically by observable data.

Hierarchical Condition CategoryConceptHCC, Condition Category Model

A US Medicare Advantage risk classification system grouping diagnosis codes into hierarchical, clinically related categories to predict future healthcare costs.

Hierarchical ModelConceptMultilevel Model, Nested Model

A hierarchical model represents observations or parameters at multiple related levels and estimates variation within and between those levels.

Hierarchical TestingConceptFixed-Sequence Testing, Sequential Test Procedure

A multiple testing strategy organising hypotheses into a prespecified sequence, so later tests are only conducted if earlier, higher-priority tests succeed.

Hierarchy of Diagnostic EfficacyConceptFryback-Thornbury Hierarchy, Fryback and Thornbury Model

The hierarchy of diagnostic efficacy is Fryback and Thornbury's six-level model for judging a test, from image quality and accuracy to societal value.

High Deductible Health PlanTermHDHP, High-Deductible Plan

A plan with a deductible above a regulatory minimum threshold, giving lower premiums but requiring a larger upfront share of routine costs.

High Performer IdentificationTermHigh-Performer Detection, Top-Performer Identification

The process of systematically identifying providers who consistently achieve superior performance on quality or efficiency metrics, to understand and disseminate their practices.

High Reliability OrganizationTermHRO, High-Reliability Healthcare Organisation

An organisation operating in a high-risk environment that consistently achieves exceptionally low serious failure rates through specific cultural characteristics.

High-Income CountryTermHIC, High-Income Economy

A country classified by gross national income per capita as falling within the highest tier of an international income classification system.

High-Quality EvidenceTermHigh Certainty Evidence, GRADE High

Within GRADE, a rating indicating strong confidence that the true effect lies close to the reported estimate, typically from well-conducted trials.

High-Value CareTermHigh-Value Healthcare, Cost-Effective Care

Healthcare providing substantial benefit relative to its cost and potential harms, the outcome quality improvement and cost-effectiveness aim to promote.

Highly Specialized TechnologyTermHST, Highly Specialised Technology Pathway

A distinct evaluation pathway for treatments addressing very rare conditions, applying different evidentiary and cost-effectiveness standards than common conditions.

HIPAATermHealth Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, US Health Privacy Law

US federal legislation establishing national standards for protecting the privacy and security of individually identifiable health information.

HIQATermHealth Information and Quality Authority, Irish HTA Body

The Health Information and Quality Authority, Ireland's independent statutory body driving high-quality, safe healthcare, encompassing assessment and quality oversight.

HistogramTermFrequency Distribution Chart, Binned Frequency Plot

A graphical display representing the distribution of numerical data by dividing it into intervals and showing observation frequency within each.

Historical ControlConcept

Historical control is a comparison group of past patients, from earlier trials or registries, used instead of or alongside a concurrently randomised group.

Hit IdentificationTermHit Discovery, Hit Finding

An early drug discovery stage identifying initial candidate compounds, called hits, showing biological activity against a target, typically via large-scale screening.

HL7TermHealth Level Seven, Health Data Standard Body

An international organisation developing standards for electronic exchange of health information, underlying much of healthcare interoperability infrastructure.

Home CareTermHome Healthcare, Domiciliary Care

Healthcare and support services delivered to a patient within their own home, rather than a hospital or residential facility.

Home HealthTermSkilled Home Care, Home Nursing

Skilled clinical services, such as nursing care and physical therapy, delivered to a patient within their own home.

Horizon ScanningTermTechnology Watch, Emerging-Tech Surveillance, Early Awareness System, EAAS, Early Warning System, Early Awareness and Alert System, Emerging Technology Monitoring

A systematic process identifying, tracking, and prioritising emerging technologies likely to significantly affect a health system, before market entry.

Horizontal EquityConceptEqual Treatment for Equal Need, Like-for-Like Equity

Horizontal equity is equal treatment of equals in health care: equal care for people in equal need and equal payments from those with equal ability to pay.

Horizontal InequityTermUnequal Treatment for Equal Need, Equity Violation

A violation of the principle that individuals with equal healthcare need should receive equal treatment, regardless of income or other irrelevant characteristics.

Horizontally IntegratedTermHorizontal Integration, Same-Level Integration

A structure in which multiple organisations providing the same service type, such as several hospitals, combine under common ownership.

Hormone TherapyTermHormonal Therapy, Endocrine Therapy

A treatment approach using hormones or hormone-blocking agents, such as hormone replacement for menopause or hormone-blocking therapy for hormone-sensitive cancers.

Hosmer-Lemeshow TestConceptH-L Test, Hosmer-Lemeshow Statistic

A goodness of fit test assessing how well a logistic regression model's predicted probabilities match observed outcome frequencies across risk groups.

Hospice CareTermTerminal Care, Hospice Service

A specialised model providing comfort-focused, interdisciplinary support for patients with terminal illness and limited life expectancy, and their families.

Hospital AdmissionsTermInpatient Intake Count, Hospital Intake Volume

The total number of patients formally accepted for inpatient care within a facility over a defined period, a key utilisation measure.

Hospital CompareTermCMS Compare Site, Public Hospital Ratings

Hospital Compare was a CMS website reporting quality information on US hospitals, retired in December 2020 when CMS merged it into Care Compare.

Hospital HTA UnitTermHospital-Based HTA, Mini-HTA Unit

A functional unit within an individual hospital conducting localised, often simplified assessments for institution-specific decisions such as adopting new equipment.

Hospital-Acquired ConditionTermHAC, Hospital-Acquired Complication

A condition or complication a patient acquires during a hospital stay not present on admission, considered reasonably preventable through evidence-based practices.

Hospital-Acquired InfectionTermIn-Hospital Infection, Hospital Infection

An infection a patient develops during care in a healthcare facility, not present or incubating at admission, a largely preventable cost.

Hospitalization CostTermInpatient Cost, Admission Cost

The total expense of an inpatient hospital stay, covering room and board, nursing care, procedures, and medications during the admission.

HTA CollaborationTermHTA Cooperation, Joint HTA

A formal or informal partnership between multiple assessment organisations sharing information and reducing duplication across countries or regions.

HTA Core ModelTermCore Model, EUnetHTA Core Model

A standardised framework structuring how assessment information is produced and shared across countries, reducing duplication and improving consistency.