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Supply of Health Services

Monopoly and competition in health care supply; models of
health care institutions (hospitals, nursing homes; for-profit, non-profit); care in the community: long term care, informal care; ambulance services; managed care; health care produc- tion functions; cost functions; economies of scale and scope; quality of care; regulation and price controls; the pharmaceu- tical and medical equipment industries.

Opportunity costs, marginal productivity, and cost-effectiveness thresholds: providing useful analysis and communicating results

In our first post, we explained opportunity cost, marginal productivity (of a healthcare system), net benefit, and cost-effectiveness threshold. In this post, we put forward our views on how to use cost-effectiveness thresholds and the existing estimates of marginal productivity… Read More »Opportunity costs, marginal productivity, and cost-effectiveness thresholds: providing useful analysis and communicating results

Opportunity costs, marginal productivity, and cost-effectiveness thresholds: what are they and how are they related?

In this post, we explain key concepts of cost-effectiveness analysis in healthcare and how they are linked: opportunity cost, marginal productivity (of a healthcare system), net benefit, and cost-effectiveness threshold. In another post, to be published tomorrow, we will propose… Read More »Opportunity costs, marginal productivity, and cost-effectiveness thresholds: what are they and how are they related?

Weekend effect explainer: why we are not the ‘climate change deniers of healthcare’

The statistics underlying the arguments around the weekend effect are complicated. Despite over a hundred empirical studies on the topic, and an observed increase in the risk of mortality for weekend admissions in multiple countries, there is still no real… Read More »Weekend effect explainer: why we are not the ‘climate change deniers of healthcare’

Access to medicines and medical technologies for the global poor

The UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Access to Medicines recently published its long awaited report Promoting innovation and access to health technologies. The report explores and proposes some solutions to the well recognised problem of under-investment in research and… Read More »Access to medicines and medical technologies for the global poor

The ‘Weekend Effect’ (and what it means for research and policy)

Today, two new studies are published examining different aspects of the observed increase in the risk of mortality associated with weekend admission, the so-called ‘weekend effect’. In the first [disclaimer: I am an author of this], the results of a… Read More »The ‘Weekend Effect’ (and what it means for research and policy)

Could a reduction in the cost-effectiveness threshold stymie medical research and development?

In previous posts (here and here) the comprehensive work undertaken by Claxton et al on the returns to medical expenditure in the NHS was discussed. Claxton and colleagues estimated the average change in quality adjusted life years (QALY) that have… Read More »Could a reduction in the cost-effectiveness threshold stymie medical research and development?