Evaluating the Healthcare System: Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Equity

This upcoming third edition defines and illustrates the measurement and relevance of effectiveness, efficiency, and equity as criteria for evaluating healthcare system performance. Specific examples of the application of health services research in addressing contemporary health policy problems at the national, state, and local level are presented.

This new edition will include a significant amount of new material. In particular, the book will draw upon a growing body of research on the social and economic determinants of population health, and explore the distinct and complementary roles of health services and public health research and policy in improving the health of individuals and communities.

An important healthcare and public health problem area woven throughout the book in demonstrating the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity concepts in the context of these issues is breast and cervical cancer prevention and treatment and related cancer morbidity and mortality outcomes. This example provides a useful opportunity to explore the medical and non-medical predictors of health and healthcare disparities, the role of primary versus secondary prevention, and the utility of the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity benchmarks in guiding the design of state and federal policy to ameliorate disparities.

Lu Ann Aday, Ph.D., is Lorne D. Bain distinguished professor in public health and medicine at the University of Texas School of Public Health. She received her doctorate in sociology from Purdue University and was formerly associate director for research at the Center for Health Administration Studies of the University of Chicago. Dr. Aday's principal research interests have focused on indicators and correlates of health services utilization and access. She has conducted major national and community surveys and evaluations of national demonstrations and published extensively in this area, including 13 previous books dealing with conceptual or empirical aspects of research on equity of access to health and healthcare. Dr. Aday teaches courses in health services research and health survey research design.

Charles E. Begley, Ph.D., is professor of management and policy sciences at the University of Texas School of Public Health and a member of the adjunct faculty in the department of economics at Rice University. He received his doctorate in economics from the University of Texas at Austin and has been on the faculty of the University of Illinois and Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, Illinois. Dr. Begley's research emphasizes the economic aspects of health policies and programs. He has directed or consulted on numerous health services and policy research projects at the national, state, and local levels. Dr. Begley teaches courses in health economics, state and local health policy, and policy analysis.

David R. Lairson, Ph.D., is professor of health economics on the faculty of the University of Texas School of Public Health and a member of the adjunct faculty in the department of economics at Rice University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky and was a doctoral fellow at the Kaiser Center for Health Research in Portland, Oregon. He is a member of the U.S. Veterans Administration Health Services Research and Development Service Scientific Review and Evaluation Board. Dr. Lairson's major research and teaching interests include health services research, health economics, and the economic evaluation of healthcare programs.

Rajesh Balkrishnan, Ph.D., is associate professor of management and policy sciences at the University of Texas School of Public Health. A pharmacist by training, he obtained his doctorate in health policy with a focus in health outcomes evaluation and research methodology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health. Dr. Balkrishnan is also an adjunct professor with Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Dr. Balkrishnan is a quantitative health services researcher, and his research generally focuses on application of statistical methodology in examining issues related to quality of medical care delivery and health outcomes in chronic disease. He has published extensively and led a number of research projects in this area. Dr. Balkrishnan teaches courses in health outcomes, quality of medical care, research methods, and pharmaceutical economics.