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.
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
- Government policy governing which vaccines are included in a national immunisation schedule and how programmes will be funded and administered.
- 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
- The degree to which a vaccine reduces disease risk under real-world conditions in a general population, unlike efficacy measured under trial conditions.
- Vaccine EfficacyConceptProtective Efficacy, Efficacy Under Trial Conditions
- The degree to which a vaccine reduces disease risk among vaccinated individuals under the controlled conditions of a clinical trial.
- 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 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
- A monetary estimate of the value society places on reducing the risk of death, derived from willingness to pay for a small risk reduction.
- Value of Statistical Life YearConceptVSLY, Statistical Life-Year Value
- An adaptation of the value of statistical life expressed per life-year rather than per life, adjusted for age and remaining life expectancy.
- 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, Set Fee Schedule, Administered Price
- The complete collection of utility weights from a population valuation study, used to convert every combination of instrument responses into a utility score.
- 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
- A purchasing approach that connects provider selection, contracting or payment to measured care quality, outcomes or efficiency for a defined population.
- 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
- A dispersion measure representing the average squared deviation of individual data points from the mean of a dataset.
- 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
- A regression diagnostic quantifying how much an estimated coefficient's variance is inflated by correlation with other predictors, higher values meaning worse multicollinearity.
- 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
- Global sensitivity analysis techniques, including Sobol indices, decomposing total output variance into components attributable to each parameter and 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
- Differences or spread in a measured characteristic across specified people, groups, services, places or times.
- 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
- An orthogonal factor rotation maximising the variance of squared loadings within each factor, tending to make each variable load strongly on only one factor.
- Venous ThromboembolismTermVTE, Venous Thrombosis
- A condition covering both deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, involving venous clot formation and its potential to travel to the lungs.