AØKK08210U Health Economic Evaluations

Volume 2019/2020
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 modelling
  • How to present results and how to handle uncertainty
  • Value of information analysis
  • Systematic reviews and meta-analyses
  • Introduction to modelling methods in MS Excel
  • Prioritization in the Danish health care sector
Learning Outcome

After completing the course the student is expected to 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.
  • Identify biases in clinical trial design and reporting.
  • Account for the methods and value of meta-analyses.
  • Define concepts related to preference measurement (including time trade-off and standard gamble) as well as common instruments (including EQ-5D).
  • Define the concepts of budget impact analysis and value of information analysis and their usefulness in healthcare decision-making.
  • Account for the difference between trial-based evaluations and decision-analytic models and the differences between alternative decision-analytic models including decision trees and Markov models.
  • Discuss the concepts of deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analysis and their ability to assess robustness of results.

 

Skills:

  • Discuss and assess the documented efficacy of a healthcare intervention.
  • Analyze cost-effectiveness analyses to determine the drivers of conclusions and assess their validity.

 

Competencies:

  • Determine if a particular healthcare intervention can be said to be cost effective or not by using the published literature.
  • Critically and independently assess health economic evaluations as published in the scientific literature.
  • Implement proper methods for analyzing cost-effectiveness of a new healthcare intervention.
Literature

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

  • Supplemented by a number of scientific articles.

Understanding of economic concepts including opportunity costs and statistical methods.
Lectures. Six of these will include exercises, in which students will work individually or in groups getting hands-on experience with modelling.
Schedule:
3 lectures every week from week 36 to 50 (except week 42).

Schema:
The overall schema for the Master can be seen at KUnet:
MSc in Economics => "Courses and teaching" => "Planning and overview" => "Your timetable"

Timetable and venue:
To see the time and location of lectures please press the link under "Se skema" (See schedule) at the right side of this page. E means Autumn.

You can find the similar information partly in English at
https:/​/​skema.ku.dk/​ku1920/​uk/​module.htm
-Select Department: “2200-Økonomisk Institut” (and wait for respond)
-Select Module:: “2200-E19; [Name of course]””
-Select Report Type: “List – Weekdays”
-Select Period: “Efterår/Autumn – Weeks 31-5”
Press: “ View Timetable”
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Exam
  • 82
  • Lectures
  • 42
  • Preparation
  • 82
  • Total
  • 206
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment, 3 weeks
project paper that can be written individually or in groups of up to 3 students. The plagiarism rules must be complied and please be aware of the rules for co-writing assignemnts. The project paper must be written in English.

The project 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.
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Exam registration requirements

There are no requirements during the course that the student has to fulfill to be able to sit the exam.

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Aid
All aids allowed
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
for the written exam. The exam may be chosen for external censorship by random check.
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Exam period

Exam information:

The project paper must be submittet not later than 20 December 2019 at 10 AM.

 

More information will be available in  the Digital Exam  from the middle of the semester.

 

In special cases, the exam date can be changed to another day and time within the exam period.

 

For enrolled students more information about examination, rules etc. is available at the intranet for Master students (UK) and Master students (DK).

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Re-exam

Reexam information:

A new project paper must be uploded not later than 20 February 2020 at 10 AM.

The paper can be based on the same material than the non-passed paper.

 

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

 

Information about the reexam will be available in the Digital Exam early February.

 

More information is available at Master students (UK)ndMaster students (DK).

Criteria for exam assesment

Students are assessed on the extent to which they master the learning outcome for the course.

 

To receive the top grade, the student must with no or only a few minor weaknesses be able to demonstrate an excellent performance displaying a high level of command of all aspects of the relevant material and can make use of the knowledge, skills and competencies listed in the learning outcomes.