AØKK08210U Health Economic Evaluations

Volume 2016/2017
Education

MSc programme in Economics – elective course

Content

The course will give students an introduction to the principles of economic evaluations in health care. Topics include:

  • Foundations for economic evaluation
  • Critical assessment of clinical trials
  • Cost measurement
  • Budget impact and cost-of-illness
  • Cost-benefit, cost-effectiveness and cost-utility
  • Outcome and preference measurement
  • Trial-based economic evaluations and decision-analytic modeling
  • How to present results and how to handle uncertainty
  • Value of information analysis
  • Systematic reviews and meta-analyses
  • Introduction to modeling methods in MS Excel
  • Prioritization in the Danish health care sector

 

Learning Outcome

After completing the course, the student should be able to…:

Knowledge:

  • Explain the difference between welfarist and extra-welfarist approaches to health economic evaluations
  • Explain differences between cost-benefit, cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses
  • Understand and identify biases in clinical trial design and reporting
  • Explain the methods and value of meta-analyses
  • Describe the differences between alternative decision-analytic models including decision trees and Markov models and the difference between trial-based evaluations and decision-analytic models
  • Explain the concepts of deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analysis and their ability to assess robustness of results
  • Explain concepts related to preference measurement (including time trade-off and standard gamble) as well as common instruments (including EQ-5D)
  • Explain the concepts of budget impact analysis and value of information analysis and their usefulness in healthcare decision-making

 

Skills:

  • Critically assess health economic evaluations as published in the scientific literature
  • Assess the documented efficacy of a healthcare intervention

 

Competencies:

  • Using the published literature, determine if a particular healthcare intervention can be said to be cost effective or not
  • Analyze cost-effectiveness analyses to determine the drivers of conclusions and assess their validity 
  • Identify proper methods for analyzing cost-effectiveness of a new healthcare intervention and structure the analysis

 

The course is built around the book:

Drummond, M. F., Methods for the economic evaluation of health care programmes, 4th edition, Oxford University Press, 2015, ISBN 9780199665877 ( link),

And include chapters from the book: Briggs, A., Decision Modelling for Health Economic Evaluation, Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 9780198526629 ( link).

Supplemented by a number of scientific articles.

Understanding of economic concepts including opportunity costs and statistical methods.
Schedule:
3 hours of lectures per week for 11 weeks. after which students have time to write the exam project.

Time and venue:
To see the time and location of lectures please press the link/links under "Se skema" (See schedule) at the right side of this page (17F means Spring 2017).

You can find the similar information partly in English at
https:/​/​skema.ku.dk/​ku1617/​uk/​module.htm
-Select Department: “2200-Økonomisk Institut” (and wait for respond)
-Select Module:: “2200-F17; [Name of course]”
-Select Report Type: List
-Select Period: "Forår/Spring – Week 4-29”
Press: “ View Timetable”
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Exam
  • 82
  • Lectures
  • 42
  • Preparation
  • 82
  • Total
  • 206
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment, 3 weeks
The exam is a project paper that evaluates published cost-effectiveness research and identifies cost-effective treatments for a disease of the student’s choice. The student should demonstrate the ability to critically appraise cost-effectiveness research.

The paper can be answered in Groups of 2-3 students and in English or in Danish. Language must be chosen at the course or exam registration.
Aid
All aids allowed
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
100 % censorship
Exam period

The project has to be handed in no later than May 31, 2017 at 12.00 (noon)

For enrolled students more information about examination, exam/re-sit, rules etc. is available at the student intranet for Examination (English) and student intranet for Examination (KA-Danish).

 

Re-exam

The project has to be handed in no later than August 31 2017 at 12.00 (noon)

If only a few students have registered for the re-exam, the exam might change to an oral exam including the date for the exam, which will be informed  by the Examination Office.

 

Criteria for exam assesment

The student must in a satisfactory way demonstrate that he/she has mastered the learning outcome of the course.