Pharmacoeconomics economic and humanistic

The important first step in developing a pharmacoeconomic strategic plan is to start by finding out what is currently known about the disease and the economic and humanistic burden that it has on patients, payers and providers. The best place to start is with a review of the literature and the Internet to determine what has already been accomplished. This may entail a review of the epidemiology and clinical aspects of the condition to verify that pharmacoeconomic components would be a worthwhile addition to a clinical program. After this review the pharmacoeconomist should then formulate the plan for measuring economic and humanistic outcome, and this will ultimately become a component of the full development plan. 

Pharmacoeconomic baseline data should not be considered in isolation, but as one aspect of data that must be considered as a part of the whole. Once the burden of illness information is collected and analyzed, the development team must move to plan for ways to measure and document the clinical, economic and humanistic impact of the new pharmaceutical entity or other intervention. 

One of the primary applications of pharmacoeconomics in clinical practice today is to aid clinical and policy decision making. Through the appropriate application of pharmacoeconomics, practitioners and administrators can make better, more-informed decisions regarding the products and services they provide. Complete pharmacotherapy decisions should contain assessments of three basic outcome areas whenever appropriate clinical, economic, and humanistic outcomes. Traditionally, most drug therapy decisions were based solely on the cfinical outcomes (e.g., safety and efficacy) associated with a treatment alternative. Over the past lOto 15 years, it has become quite popular also to include an assessment of the economic outcomes associated with a treatment alternative. The current trend is also to... 

Bungay KM, Sanchez LA. Types of economic and humanistic outcomes assessments. In Grauer D, Lee J, Odom T, et al., eds. Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes, 2d ed. Kansas City, MO, American College of Clinical Pharmacy, 2003 18-60. 

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... 

Kozma, C.M., et al., "Economic, Clinical, and Humanistic Outcomes A Planning Model for Pharmacoeconomic Research," Clin. Therapeut., 15, 1121-1132 (1993). 

Kozma CM, Reeder CE, Schultz RM, 1993. Economic, clinical and humanistic outcomes A planning model for pharmacoeconomic research. Clin Ther 15 1121. 

Bakst A, Meletiche D, Arnold R, et al. The Avandia Worldwide Awareness Registry (AWARe ) an Internet-based program for evaluation of clinical, humanistic and economic outcomes of patients with type 2 diabetes. International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research Sixth Annual International Meeting. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2001. 

Economic, humanistic, and clinical outcomes should be considered and valued using pharmacoeconomic methods, to inform local decision making whenever possible. 

Quality patient care must not be compromised while attempting to contain costs. The products and services delivered by today s health professionals should demonstrate pharmacoeconomic value, that is, a balance of economic, humanistic, and clinical outcomes. Pharmacoeconomics can provide the systematic means for this quantification. This chapter discusses the principles and methods of pharmacoeconomics and how they can be applied to clinical pharmacy practice and thereby how they can assist in the valuation of pharmacotherapy and other modalities of treatment in clinical practice. 

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