Dictionary

V

Vaccination CostTermImmunisation Cost, Cost of Vaccination

The total resources required to deliver a vaccination programme, covering the vaccine product, administration, cold chain storage, and delivery infrastructure.

Vaccination ExternalitiesConceptVaccine Externalities, Indirect Vaccine Effects

Vaccination externalities are the benefits one person's vaccination gives others by cutting disease spread, benefits that person ignores when choosing.

Vaccination PolicyConceptImmunisation Policy, Vaccine Policy

Vaccination policy is how a government decides which vaccines its immunisation programme funds, for whom and when, and how doses are bought and delivered.

Vaccine EconomicsTermVaccination Economics, Immunisation Economics, Vaccine Cost-Effectiveness, Vaccine CEA, Immunisation Cost-Effectiveness, Vaccine Programme Evaluation, Immunisation Programme Evaluation, Vaccine Programme Assessment

The application of health economic evaluation specifically to vaccines, covering pricing, programme design, and modelling techniques capturing indirect protective effects.

Vaccine EffectivenessConceptReal-World Vaccine Effect, Field Effectiveness

Vaccine effectiveness is how much a vaccine cuts disease risk in routine use, estimated from observational data and used in vaccine economic models.

Vaccine EfficacyConceptProtective Efficacy, Efficacy Under Trial Conditions

Vaccine efficacy is the percentage fall in disease risk in vaccinated trial participants versus controls, the protection input in vaccine economic models.

Vaccine PricingTermImmunisation Pricing, Vaccine Price Setting

The pricing strategies applied specifically to vaccines, often differentiated by country income level and supported by international procurement mechanisms.

Validation SetTermValidation Data, Tuning Set

A subset of data used during model development, separate from both the training data and the final test set, to tune settings.

Validity AssessmentTermValidity Evaluation, Validity Testing, Study Validity

The process of evaluating whether an instrument or study design accurately captures what it is intended to measure, covering several specific forms.

Valuation ProtocolTermValuation Procedure, Elicitation Protocol

The specific procedures, including instructions, health state descriptions, and elicitation technique, followed when conducting a health state valuation study.

Valuation Study DesignTermValuation Design, Preference Study Design

The overall methodological plan for a health state valuation exercise, including sample selection, elicitation technique, and the health states to be valued.

Value AssessmentTermValue Evaluation, Value Appraisal

The process of evaluating a technology's overall benefit relative to its cost, encompassing cost-effectiveness analysis and broader value frameworks.

Value CommunicationTermValue Messaging, Value Storytelling

The process of clearly and accurately conveying a technology's demonstrated value to clinicians, patients, and payers, grounded in the underlying evidence.

Value DemonstrationTermValue Evidence Generation, Demonstrating Value

The process of generating and presenting evidence establishing a technology's clinical and economic value, spanning trial results, real-world evidence, and modelling.

Value DossierTermValue Evidence Dossier, Evidence Value Pack

A comprehensive document presenting clinical and economic evidence supporting a technology's value, prepared to support assessment submissions and payer engagement.

Value DriverTermValue Lever, Value Contributor

A specific factor contributing meaningfully to a technology's overall assessed value, such as a particularly strong trial result or safety profile.

Value ElementTermValue Component, Value Dimension

A specific, distinct component contributing to a technology's overall value, such as clinical benefit, caregiver burden effect, or real option value.

Value For MoneyTermVfM, Worth the Cost

A general term describing whether a technology's health benefit is judged sufficient to justify its cost, cost-effectiveness analysis's central question.

Value FrameworkTermValue Assessment Framework, Value Scoring Framework

A structured tool for systematically assessing a technology's overall value, encompassing considerations beyond a single cost-effectiveness ratio, such as toxicity.

Value GapTermValue Shortfall

The difference between a technology's price and its assessed value based on formal health economic evaluation, favourable or unfavourable.

Value in HealthcareTermHealthcare Value, Value in Health

A concept defined as health outcomes achieved for patients relative to the cost of achieving them, the central principle of value-based reform.

Value JudgementConcept

A value judgement is a normative claim about what is good or ought to be done, such as weighting all QALYs equally, which evidence alone cannot settle.

Value MatrixTermValue Grid, Value Assessment Matrix

A structured framework, often within multi-criteria decision analysis, organising multiple value criteria and scores for a set of technologies for comparison.

Value MeasurementTerm

The assessment of healthcare value as the outcomes achieved relative to the cost incurred across a full cycle of care.

Value of InformationConceptVOI, Information Value

Value of information (VOI) analysis estimates the expected benefit of reducing decision uncertainty, to judge whether more research is worth its cost.

Value of Statistical LifeConceptVSL, Statistical Life Value, Value of a Statistical Life

Value of statistical life (VSL) is what people would pay for small cuts in their risk of death, per expected death avoided, used in cost-benefit analysis.

Value of Statistical Life YearConceptVSLY, Statistical Life-Year Value

The value of a statistical life year (VSLY) is the money value per year of a small gain in life expectancy, derived from the VSL for cost-benefit analysis.

Value PropositionTermProduct Value Case, Payer Value Case

A clear, concise statement articulating a technology's benefits relative to existing alternatives and why those benefits justify its proposed cost.

Value ScoreTermValue Rating, Value Index

A numerical rating summarising a technology's overall assessed value, combining multiple factors such as clinical benefit, toxicity, and cost.

Value SetConceptUtility Tariff, Preference Tariff, Tariff

A value set is the set of utility weights, from a general public valuation study, that scores every health state an instrument such as EQ-5D describes.

Value Set DevelopmentTermTariff Development, Value Set Construction

The process of designing, conducting, and analysing a population valuation study to produce a scoring algorithm for a health status instrument.

Value StoryTermValue Narrative, Product Story

A coherent narrative integrating a technology's clinical, economic, and humanistic evidence into an accurate overall account of its value proposition.

Value Stream MappingTermVSM, Value Stream Map

A lean management tool visually mapping all steps, value-adding and not, required to deliver a service, to identify and eliminate waste.

Value TransferTermEstimate Transfer, Transferred Estimate

The general practice of applying an economic value estimated in one context to a decision in a different context.

Value-Based AssessmentTermValue-Based Appraisal, Multi-Dimensional Value Assessment

An evaluation approach explicitly centring the relationship between a technology's outcomes and cost, potentially incorporating multiple value dimensions.

Value-Based HealthcareTermVBHC, Value-Based Care

A framework organising delivery and payment around maximising health outcomes achieved for patients relative to cost, rather than service volume.

Value-Based PaymentTermVBP, Outcome-Linked Payment

A general term for arrangements tying provider reimbursement to quality, efficiency, or outcomes, rather than volume alone under fee-for-service.

Value-Based PricingConceptVBP Pricing, Value-Based Price Setting

Value-based pricing sets a medicine's price by the health it adds over current care, typically the highest price that meets a cost-effectiveness threshold.

Value-Based PurchasingConceptVBP Purchasing, Value-Based Commissioning

Value-based purchasing is when a health purchaser ties provider payment or contracts to measured quality and outcomes, as in Medicare's hospital programme.

Value-Based Safe HarborTermVBC Safe Harbor, Value-Based Arrangement Exception

A US legal protection permitting certain value-based payment arrangements that might otherwise raise concerns under standard anti-kickback fraud rules.

Variable CostTermVariable Expense, Volume-Dependent Cost

A cost that changes in direct proportion to output or service volume, such as medical supplies used per patient treated.

VarianceConceptSigma Squared, Mean Squared Deviation

Variance is the average squared deviation from the mean, measuring spread in patient costs and outcomes and the uncertainty of health economic estimates.

Variance AnalysisTermBudget-vs-Actual Analysis, Financial Variance Review

A technique for decomposing the difference between budgeted and actual financial results into component causes, such as price and volume effects.

Variance Inflation FactorConceptVIF, Collinearity Diagnostic

The variance inflation factor (VIF) measures how much overlap among predictors enlarges a regression coefficient's variance in cost or outcome models.

Variance ReductionConceptVariance-Reduction Technique, Efficiency Technique

Variance reduction is the use of simulation sampling or estimator design to lower Monte Carlo error for a specified quantity without changing the quantity being estimated.

Variance-Based SensitivityConceptVariance-Based SA, Sobol Sensitivity Analysis

Variance-based sensitivity analysis apportions the variance of a health economic model output to each uncertain input and to their interactions.

Variance-Covariance MatrixConceptCovariance Matrix, Dispersion Matrix

A symmetric array of variances and pairwise covariances that describes the scale and joint movement of a set of random quantities or estimates.

VariationConceptCare Differences, Provider Variability

Variation is the spread of a measured quantity, such as cost, service use or outcome, across patients, providers, areas or time periods in a health system.

Variation AnalysisTermVariation Analysis Performance, Practice Variation Analysis

An examination of differences in healthcare utilisation, cost, or outcomes across providers, regions, or time periods, identifying patterns for investigation.

Varimax RotationConceptVarimax Method, Variance-Maximising Rotation

Varimax rotation is an orthogonal factor rotation maximising the variance of squared loadings in each factor, used to find health questionnaire domains.