Drug therapy pharmacoeconomic evaluation

The objective of economic evaluations of health and social care interventions is to inform decision-makers about the relative costs and benefits to society of two or more methods of providing care. In the context of dementia these may be comparisons of different drug therapies (pharmacoeconomic... 

In recent years pharmacoeconomics has been used as a term to describe the identification, measurement and comparison of the costs and consequences of pharmaceutical products and services (Bootman et al 1996). As such, pharmacoeconomics focuses primarily on pharmaceuticals, and attempts to evaluate the economic and humanistic impact of drug therapy. Pharmacoeconomic tools are derived from a variety of sources, including the fields of economics and outcomes research. Quite often the pharmacoeconomist will bring to the development team skills and experience in quality of life, patient satisfaction and other patient-centered measures. Health economists and a pharmacoeco-nomists differ (while the terms are sometimes used interchangeably), in having stronger backgrounds in the theoretical and applied aspects of health economics, respectively. A researcher with solid... 

Cost is defined as the value of the resources consumed by a program or drug therapy of interest. Consequence is defined as the effects, outputs, or outcomes of the program of drug therapy of interest. Consideration of both costs and consequences differentiates most pharmacoeconomic evaluation methods from traditional cost-containment strategies and drug-use evaluations. 

Pharmacoeconomic data can be a powerful tool to support various clinical decisions, ranging from the level of the patient to the level of an entire health care system. Figure 1-2 shows various decisions that may be supported using pharmacoeconomics, including effective formulary management, individual patient treatment, medication policy, and resource aUocation. For discussion purposes, the application of pharmacoeconomics to decision making is divided into two basic areas drug therapy evaluation and clinical pharmacy service evaluation. 

The application of pharmacoeconomics also can be useful for making a decision about an individual patient s therapy. Evaluating the impact a drug has on a patient s HRQOL can be useful when deciding between two agents for customizing a patient s pharmacotherapy. Although this can be one of the most difficult applications of pharmacoeconomics, it is also one of the most important. 

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