Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T22:50:42.571Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Economists’ dream or nightmare? Maximizing health gains from available resources using the NICE guidelines

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2007

AMIRAM GAFNI
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, McMaster University, Canada

Abstract

Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Debate
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Birch, S. and Gafni, A. (1992), ‘Cost-effectiveness/utility analyses: do current decision rules lead us to where we want to be?’, Journal of Health Economics, 11: 279296.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Birch, S. and Gafni, A. (1993), ’Changing the problem to fit the solution: Johannesson and Weinstein's (mis)application of economics to real world problems’, Journal of Health Economics, 12: 469476.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Birch, S. and Gafni, A. (2002), ‘On being NICE in the UK: guidelines for technology appraisal for the NHS in England and Wales’, Health Economics, 11: 185191.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Birch, S. and Gafni, A. (2003), ‘Economics and the evaluation of health care programmes: generalisability of methods and implications for generalizability of results’, Health Policy, 64: 207219.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Birch, S. and Gafni, A. (2006), ‘The biggest bang for the buck or bigger bucks for the bang: the fallacy of the cost-effectiveness threshold’, Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, 11: 4651.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Claxton, K., Sculpher, M., Culyer, A., McCabe, C., Briggs, A., Akehurst, R., Buxton, M., and Brazier, J. (2006), ‘Discounting and cost-effectiveness in NICE – stepping back to sort out a confusion’, Health Economics, 15: 14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cookson, R., McDaid, D., and Maynard, A. (2001), ‘Wrong SIGN, NICE mess: is national guidance distorting allocation of resources?’, British Medical Journal, 323: 743745.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Devlin, N. (2002), ‘An introduction to the use of cost-effectiveness thresholds in decision making: what are the isues?’, in A. Towse, C. Pritchard, and N. Devlin (eds), Cost-Effectiveness Thresholds: Economic and Ethical Issues, London: Kings and Office of Health Economics.Google Scholar
Devlin, N., Parkin, D., and Gold, M. (2003), ‘WHO evaluates NICE: the report card is good but incomplete’, British Medical Journal, 327: 10611062.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doubilet, P., Weinstein, M., and McNeil, B. (1986), ‘Use and misuse of the term “cost effective” in medicine’, New England Journal of Medicine, 314: 253256.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Drummond, M. (1980), Principles of Economic Appraisal in Health Care, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Drummond, M., Torrance, G., and Mason, J. (1993), ‘Cost-effectiveness league tables: more harm than good?’, Social Science and Medicine, 37: 3340.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Drummond, M., Sculpher, M., Torrance, G., O’Brien, B., and Stoddart, G. (2005), Methods for the Economic Evaluation of Health Care Programmes, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, R. (1984), Strained Mercy, Toronto: Butterworths.Google Scholar
Gafni, A. and Birch, S. (1993), ‘Guidelines for the adoption of new technology: a potential prescription for uncontrolled growth in expenditures and how to avoid it’, Canadian Medical Association Journal, 148: 913924.Google Scholar
Gafni, A. and Birch, S. (2003), ‘Inclusion of drugs in provincial benefit programs: should “reasonable decisions” lead to uncontrolled growth in expenditures?’, Canadian Medical Association Journal, 168: 849851.Google ScholarPubMed
Gafni, A. and Birch, S. (2006), ‘Incremental Cost effectiveness ratios (ICERs): the silence of the lambda’, Social Science and Medicine (in press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gold, M., Siegel, J., Russell, L., and Weinstein, M. (1996), Cost-Effectiveness in Health and Medicine, New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
House of Commons’ Select Committee (2002), Health: National Institute for Clinical Excellence, London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Johannesson, M. and Weinstein, M. (1993), ‘On the decision rules of cost-effectiveness analysis’, Journal of Health Economics, 12: 459468.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laupacis, A. (2002), ‘Inclusion of drugs in a provincial drug benefit program: who is making these decisions and are they right ones?’, Canadian Medical Association Journal, 166: 4447.Google Scholar
Mayor, S. (2002), ‘News extra: NICE estimates that its recommendations have cost the NHS £575 million’, British Medical Journal, 325: 924.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, S., Barer, M., and Evans, R. (2000), ‘Health economists meet the fifth temptor: Drug dependency and scientific discourse’, Health Economics, 9: 659668.3.0.CO;2-0>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Health Service (1944), Cmnd 6502, His Majesty’s Stationery Office, London.Google Scholar
National Institute for Clinical Excellence (2001), Technical Guidance for Manufacturers and Sponsors on Making a Submission to a Technology Appraisal, London: National Institute for Clinical Excellence.Google Scholar
National Institute for Clinical Excellence (2004), Guide to the Methods of Technology Appraisal, London: National Institute for Clinical Excellence.Google Scholar
Oliver, A. (2003), ‘Accounting for the missing opportunity costs in incremental cost–outcome analysis’, Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Special Issue: 5964.Google Scholar
Rawlins, M. and Culyer, A. (2004), ‘National Institute for Clinical Excellence and its value judgements’, British Medical Journal, 329: 224227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sculpher, M., Claxton, K., and Akehurst, R. (2004), ‘Its just evaluation for decision making: Recent developments in, and challenges for, cost-effectiveness research’, in P. Smith, L. Ginelly and M. Sculpher (eds), Health Policy and Economics: Opportunities and Challenges, Milton Keynes: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Sendi, P. and Briggs, A. (2001) ‘Affordability and cost effectiveness: decision-making on the cost-effectiveness plane’, Health Economics, 10: 675680.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sendi, P., Gafni, A., and Birch, S. (2002), ‘Opportunity costs and uncertainty in the economic evaluation of health care interventions’, Health Economics, 11: 2332.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, R. (2004), ‘The triumph of NICE’, British Medical Journal, 329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, R., Hutton, J., and Culyer, A. (2002), ‘Developing the revised NICE appraisal technical guidance to manufacturers and sponsors: opportunity or threat?’, Pharmacoeconomics, 20: 10311038.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Torrance, G., Thomas, W., and Sackett, D. (1972), ‘A utility maximization model for evaluation of health care programmes’, Health Services Research, 7: 118133.Google Scholar
Towse, A. and Pritchard, C. (2003), ‘Does NICE have a threshold? An external view’, in Towse, A.Pritchard, C. and Devlin, N. (eds), Cost-Effectiveness Thresholds: Economic and Ethical Issues, London: Kings Fund and Office of Health Economics.Google Scholar
World Health Organisation. (2003), Technology Appraisal Programme of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence a Review by WHO, Copenhagen: World Health Organisation.Google Scholar
Williams, A. (1983), ‘The economic role of “health indicators”’, in Teeling Smith, G. (ed.), Measuring the Social Benefits of Medicine, London: Office of Health Economic.Google Scholar
Williams, A. (2004), What could be nicer than NICE? London: Office of Health Economics.Google Scholar
Williams, A. and Cookson, R. (2000), ‘Equity in health’, in Culyer, A. and Newhouse, J. (eds), Handbook of Health Economics, Vol. 1b, Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Zinn, C. (2002), ‘Plan to cut drug spending attacked by doctors’, British Medical Journal, 324: 937.CrossRefGoogle Scholar