Pathway framework 3 of 8
How to get a value-for-money result by comparing extra costs with extra health
Do you want to learn how to tell if a treatment is worth the money? You compare its extra cost with its extra health and check the result against a threshold.
7 steps
This framework organises the concepts covered at each step of the pathway on the Knowledge Map.
Concepts from other branches of the Knowledge Tree that this pathway builds on.
Step 1
What an economic evaluation compares, for whom, and over what period.
12 concepts
Why start here
Every later method assumes a clearly framed question, so the pathway starts with what is compared and whose costs count.
Step 2
Why costs and health effects that arrive later count for less today, and by how much.
10 concepts
Why this comes next
Most evaluations run over several years, so future costs and health need converting to present values before options are compared.
Step 3
Weighing the extra cost of an option against the extra health the option brings, and deciding whether that is worth paying for.
30 concepts
Why this comes next
With costs and outcomes in present values, the next question is whether the extra health an option brings is worth its extra cost.
Step 4
Cost-effectiveness with health measured in QALYs, the form most health technology assessment bodies ask for.
5 concepts
Why this comes next
Cost-utility analysis is cost-effectiveness analysis with QALYs as the outcome, so cost-utility analysis builds directly on the step before.
Step 5
Valuing health gains in money, so an option can be judged on whether its benefits exceed its costs.
11 concepts
Why this comes next
Some decisions reach beyond health care, and valuing every outcome in money puts them on one scale.
Step 6
Whether a payer can afford an option in the years after the option is adopted, which is a separate question from value for money.
10 concepts
Why this comes next
A cost-effective option can still be too costly to fund in a given year, so affordability is checked as a separate question.
Step 7
How the same methods are applied in particular clinical areas. Pick the ones that match your work.
6 concepts
Why this comes next
With the general methods in place, these show how each clinical area applies them to its own data and decisions.
Branches that take these methods further.