Absolute Shortfall
A measure of disease severity calculated as the difference between the quality-adjusted life expectancy of a healthy comparator population and that of untreated patients.
Encyclopaedia
Explore comprehensive, evidence-informed explanations of key health economics concepts, including their development, application and relationships to other concepts. Published entries are validated through human expert review.
Bed Turnover
A measure of how frequently a hospital bed is used by different patients, calculated by dividing discharges by average available beds.
Case Fatality Rate
The proportion of people diagnosed with a disease who die from it within a defined period, a measure of disease severity.
Complication Rate
A measure of how frequently a specific adverse outcome occurs within a defined patient population undergoing a particular procedure.
Cost per QALY
A measure of value for money in cost-utility analysis, calculated as incremental cost divided by the quality-adjusted life years gained relative to a comparator.
Cost per QALY Threshold
The maximum cost per quality-adjusted life year a health system is willing to pay for a health gain, used as the decision criterion in cost-utility analysis.
Cost-Utility Analysis
Cost-utility analysis is a full economic evaluation that compares healthcare alternatives by relating differences in their costs to differences in preference-weighted health outcomes, most commonly quality-adjusted life years.
Crosswalk
A statistical mapping converting health state scores from one version of an instrument to an equivalent score on another version.
DALY Calculation Method
The methodology used to compute disability-adjusted life years, combining years of life lost to premature death with years lived with disability, weighted by severity.
Data Envelopment Analysis
A non-parametric method measuring relative efficiency of comparable units, such as hospitals, by identifying a best-practice frontier all units are measured against.
Days in Accounts Receivable
A financial metric measuring the average days it takes an organisation to collect payment after billing, an indicator of collections efficiency.
Dfle Calculation
The process of computing disability-free life expectancy using a life table combining age-specific mortality rates with age-specific disability prevalence.
Direct Elicitation
A health state valuation approach in which respondents value a state directly, using techniques such as the standard gamble or time trade-off.
Direct Utility Assessment
The process of obtaining a health state utility value by asking a respondent to compare a described state against full health and death.
Disability Weight
A value between zero and one representing the severity of health loss from a specific non-fatal condition, used to calculate years lived with disability.
Disability-Adjusted Life Year
A measure of disease burden combining years of life lost to premature death and years lived with disability, expressed as healthy years lost.
Distribution-Based MID
An approach to estimating the minimal important difference from the statistical distribution of scores in a sample, such as a fraction of the standard deviation.
Disutility
The reduction in utility from experiencing a health state worse than full health, expressed as a value below one on the utility scale.
Efficiency Index
A summary statistic quantifying a provider's relative efficiency at converting inputs into outputs, commonly derived from data envelopment analysis.
Event-Free Survival
A time-to-event outcome measured from treatment start until any of a predefined set of significant events, such as progression or death, whichever comes first.