Understanding Health Outcomes and Pharmacoeconomics

Book excerpt: Understanding Health Outcomes and Pharmacoeconomics presents an overview of the tools used to assess patient-related health status including associated health outcomes and the analyses that are used to determine cost-effectiveness in evaluating pharmacotherapeutic interventions to improve health. Including data and examples from several different countries, this comprehensive text will help students understand the basis for decisions made at the local and governmental level that impact the use of pharmaceuticals and provide a strong foundation for understanding the principles used in cost-effective decision making. With commentaries, cases studies, and highlighting international differences, this text concludes with a discussion of the need for a universal system for documenting medication use. Understanding Health Outcomes and Pharmacoeconomics provides definitions of comparative effectiveness research (CER) and comparisons of pharmacoeconomic models (including cost-effectivess, cost-benefit, and cost utility analyses). This inclusive text provides describes how CER is linked to various pharmacoeconomic models by providing examples from clinical trials with comparative pharmacotherapy and cost parameters. From the Introduction: "The need for interprofessional education was made apparent in the 2003 Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality report. All healthcare professionals must be educated to deliver patient-centered care as members of an interprofessional team, emphasizing evidence-based practice, quality improvement approaches, and informatics. An enhanced understanding of pharmacoeconomic principles is a step in the right direction for healthcare practitioners as we do our best to ensure optimal medication therapy outcomes for patients and society at-large." -- George E. MacKinnon III, PhD, RPh, FASHP