Measuring and Valuing Health Benefits for Economic Evaluation

With limited resources and funding, it is impossible to invest in all potentially beneficial health care interventions. Choices have to be made, and this practical guide allows the reader to measure and value the benefits of interventions, a key component of economic evaluation, which then permits comparisons between interventions.

John Brazier is Professor of Health Economics at the University of Sheffield's School of Health and Related Research [ScHARR]. His main interests have been in the measurement and valuation of health for economic evaluation where he has published widely. He is perhaps best known for his work in developing a preference-based measure of health for the SF-36, but more recently has extended these methods to a number of condition specific measures. At the same time, he has been pursuing a more critical perspective on preference-based measurement. He has published widely in the area and advised policy makers on the use of preference-based measures. He has been a member of the Technology Appraisal Committee of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in England and Wales. Dr Julie Ratcliffe has 15 years experience in research and teaching health economics and economic evaluation. She has also worked within the pharmaceutical industry and has acted as a consultant to industry and government. Julie joined ScHARR at the University of Sheffield in January 2003. Her main research interests concern the elicitation of patient and public preferences for health care.
Dr Aki Tsuchiya joined ScHARR at the University of Sheffield in Sep 2000 as a Research Associate and is now Senior Lecturer in Economics and Health Economics. He has a PhD from the Graduate School of Economics, University of Kyoto, Japan. Professor Joshua A Salomon is Assistant Professor of International Health at Harvard School of Public Health. His research focuses on priority setting in global health, within three main substantive areas: measurement of population health status and health valuations in community surveys; modeling and forecasting of health outcomes and disease burden; and evaluation of the potential impact and cost-effectiveness of health interventions. A major emphasis has been on development of new approaches to data collection and analysis of health measurements, with a particular focus on developing country settings and aging populations. Professor Salomon earned a BA from Harvard College and a PhD in Health Policy and Decision Sciences from Harvard University.