Cost-identification analysis

An even less complex approach than cost-benefit or cost-effectiveness analysis would be simply to enumerate the costs involved in medical care and to ignore the outcomes that result from that care. This approach is known as cost-identification analysis. By performing cost-identification analysis, the researcher can determine alternative ways of providing a service. The analysis might be expressed in terms of the cost per unit of service provided. For example, a cost-identification study might measure the cost of a course of antibiotic treatment, but it would not calculate the clinical outcomes (cost-effectiveness... 

Cost identification often involves the development of a probability or decision tree of the therapeutic pathway that describes all relevant downstream events related to use of that therapy and its comparator(s). Once the relevant resources are identified and measured (e.g. number of physician visits, treatment of side effects, number and duration of hospital visits, etc.), local costs/prices can be applied to those resources to determine the overall cost of that intervention. The scope of the resources (and costs) included in an analysis is determined by the perspective (or intended audience) of the study. 

In considering economic analysis of medical care, there are three dimensions of analysis (represented by the three axes of the cube in Fig. 1) with which readers should become familiar. Along the X axis are three types of economic analysis - cost-identification, cost-effectiveness, and cost-benefit. 

In summary, economic analysis of medical technology or medical care evaluates a medical service by comparing its monetary cost with its monetary benefit (cost-benefit), by measuring its monetary cost in relation to its outcomes (cost-effectiveness), or simply by tabulating the costs involved (cost-identification). Direct costs are generated as services are provided. In addition, productivity costs should be considered, especially in determining the benefit of a service that decreases morbidity or mortality. Finally, the perspective of the study determines the costs and benefits that will be quantified in the analysis, and sensitivity analyses test the effects of changes in variable specifications for estimated measures on the results of the study. 

Second, a full analysis should go beyond the identification of cost. Only if the safety and effectiveness of two pharmaceutical agents are equivalent will cost alone determine the choice of therapy. Cost-effectiveness analysis requires that cost be weighed against effectiveness and that when two or more alternatives are being compared, the additional cost... 

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has evolved as a comprehensive approach to project evaluation, in which environmental factors, as well as economic and technical considerations (e.g. Cost Benefit Analysis), are given appropriate consideration in the decisionmaking process. The purpose of an EIA study is to determine the potential environmental, social and health effects of a proposed development. It attempts to define and assess the physical, biological and socio-economic effects, so that logical and rational decisions are made. The identification of possible alternative sites and/or processes may assist in the reduction of potential adverse impacts. 

Health economics is concerned with the cost and consequences of decisions made about the care of patients. It therefore involves the identification, measurement, and valuation of both the costs and the consequences. The process is complex and is an inexact science, The approaches to economic evaluation include (1) cost minimization, (2) cost benefit, (3) cost effectiveness, and (4) cost utility analysis (Table 13-2). 

The underlying premise of pharmacoeconomic analyses is that fiscal resources are scarce and that there is a need to make decisions based on the relative value of different interventions in creating better health and/or longer life. There are five main analytical techniques used to evaluate the incremental value of products. These are cost-consequence analysis (CCA) cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) cost-benefit analysis (CBA) cost-minimisation analysis (CMA) and cost-utility analysis (CUA). Although the identification and valuation of the cost component (numerator) of these analyses are similar, it is the identification and valuation of the consequences (denominator) that truly differentiate these analytic techniques. A brief description of each of these techniques follows. 

Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is a method that allows for the identification, measurement, and comparison of the benefits and costs of a program or treatment alternative. The benefits realized from a program or treatment alternative are compared with the costs of providing it. Both the costs and the benefits are measured and converted into equivalent dollars in the year in which they wUl occur. Future costs and benefits are discounted or reduced to their current value. 

The common elements of cost-benefit analysis are applicable to all areas. There are four main stages identification, classification, quantification, and presentation. Each of these stages presents its unique problems to the analyst, especially since the work of various participants and disciplines in a project must be combined. ( ) In the health, safety and environmental area, quantification of health and human welfare benefits has proved to be an especially controversial topic.( ) Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to consider the application of cost-benefit analysis to regulation in that area in order to improve the quality of regulatory decisions, and to introduce discipline and rigor in the making of those decisions. 

What is the cost-effectiveness of the hazard identification analysis ... 

If you are establishing a program internally, solely as a means of improving your overall safety effort, the overall purpose migh be To systematically apply state-of-the-art hazard identification, analysis, and control tools and techniques as early in the life cycle as practical to cost-effectively provide significant improvements in the safety effort, To cost-effectively provide significant safety and design improvements, or To provide a better product at a lower cost. ... 

The hazard identification and evaluation of a complex process by means of a diagram or model that provides a comprehensive, overall view of the process, including its principal elements and the ways in which they are interrelated. There are four principal methods of analysis failure mode and effect, fault tree, THERP, and cost-benefit analysis. Each has a number of variations, and more than one may be combined in a single analysis. See also Cost-Benefit Analysis Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA/FMECA) Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) THERP (Technique for Human Error Rate Probability). 

The task of environmental analysis is the identification and quantification (screening and monitoring) of contaminants [28]. The analytical characterization and evaluation of dangerous wastes from the past are typical examples of applied environmental analysis. Traditionally, for the risk assessments of old waste deposits, analytical methods (in the form of costly laboratory analysis) are used remote from the site of investigation [29]. At abandoned waste depo.sits and industrial sites, contaminant distributions are extraordinarily het-... 

Improve the identification of opportunities and threats (15031000 2009). Identification of realistic cost, schedule, and/or scope and cost—benefit analysis. Comply with relevant legal and regulatory requirements and international norms (15031000 2009). 

Technical standards are issued through notice-and-comment rulemaking. After hazard identification and expert discussion, draft standards are published for public comments, which are considered in formulation of the final rule. Draft standards must be accompanied by a regulatory impact statement, including a cost-benefit analysis for standards involving substantial economic impact. 

Wutz et al. (2011) developed for the first time a multianalyte immunoassay based on an automated flow-through CL microarray technique for identification and quantification of antibiotic derivatives in honey samples using regenerable antigen microarrays, an indirect competitive immunoassay format using horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-labeled antibodies and CL read-out with a CCD camera. The method allows the analysis of four analytes (enrofloxacin, sulfadiazine, sulfamethazine, and streptomycin) simultaneously in 8 min with adequate recoveries and without purification or extraction. Due to the regenerability of the microarray each chip could be individually calibrated before the analysis and allowed more than 40 assays, which reduces the costs per analysis and permits an automated work flow in routine laboratories. 

De Jonghe, W., Adams, F. (COST 61a bis, 2nd Discussion Meeting Working Party 1, Detection, Identification Analysis Air Pollutants, Vienna 1982, pp. 17/23). 

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