I’m sure many of you are familiar with the process of seeking ethical approval for a project. In my opinion there is not enough of an explicit link between the potential value of a trial and its likelihood of receiving… Read More »Expected value of ethical approval?
I recently read an article with the tag-line;”With every case being so different, economics should not dominate intervention policy for premature babies’ survival”. Naturally I thought “this can’t be true” and felt the need to analyse this further. The article… Read More »Premature birth: A defence of economics
I was recently directed towards a new report on the EQ-5D, by the NICE Decision Support Unit at the University of Sheffield. As health economists we can all see the benefits of a measure like the EQ-5D, but it’s also… Read More »The EQ-5D: Keep calm and carry on
There has been a 71% reduction in the number of characters that you will have to enter to get to this blog. aheblog.com has arrived.
What’s the point in research if nobody is listening? Below is a 3-day time-line of events in the UK that demonstrate hypocrisy, ignorance and a disregard of empirical evidence within the UK Government. 07/03/2011: The Government demonstrates its commitment to translational… Read More »Falling on deaf ears: The government’s disregard for empirical evidence
This month the Equality Act 2010 was accepted by the Department of Health here in the UK, with no amendments. The NHS can no longer discriminate based on age (aside from a few reasonable exceptions). But can this new legislation… Read More »Equal care for the elderly: A swing and a miss?
The ‘well-being valuation method’ is a recently developed technique for valuing the effect, in monetary terms, of a health problem on an individual’s well-being. The method involves calculating the compensating variation necessary to maintain the same level of well-being after suffering from… Read More »The well-being valuation approach: Solution or convolution?
Science minister David Willetts recently claimed that universities were responsible for picking up the slack in R&D following Pfizer’s run for the hills – in this writer’s opinion the first of many rats* to flee this sinking ship. We need… Read More »Requiem for UK R&D
A couple of weeks ago when I was out shopping with a friend, after informing him that I had never bought a scratch card from the shop he persuaded me to buy one to tick it off the list of… Read More »Does money really make you happy: An economic approach
I recently listened to a radio show that got me thinking about something, which, to my knowledge, has never been explored. We all know the famous phrase from the United States Declaration of Independence about the ‘inalienable’ rights of man;… Read More »Life, liberty and the pursuit of unhappiness