[Economic evaluation of healthcare technologies: an introduction for physicians]. / Evaluación económica de tecnologías sanitarias: una introducción para médicos.

Economic evaluation of healthcare interventions is becoming increasingly important and are seen by decision makers as a useful tool on how best to allocate scarce resources efficiently by maximising the health of the population. It is therefore important that health care professionals understand the fundamentals of an economic analysis so that they can understand, evaluate and critically appraise published economic evaluations. This article presents an introduction to the economic analysis of health care interventions and describes the basic concepts of an economic evaluation. The authors introduce the concept of efficiency to defend the use of economic tools to guide or help decisions in healthcare. The article presents the cost-effectiveness plane as a useful instrument when presenting the results of an economic evaluation, and summarises the main ways on how costs and outcomes are measured. To help readers understand the concepts presented in this introduction, we draw on published examples of economic analyses undertaken in the field of stroke.

Evaluación económica de tecnologías sanitarias: una introducción para médicos / Economic evaluation of healthcare technologies: an introduction for physicians

Resumen. La evaluación económica de tecnologías sanitarias está logrando un papel importante en la agenda de los responsables sanitarios interesados en tomar decisiones más eficientes y que aseguren la maximización de la salud de la población. Por ello es necesario que los profesionales sanitarios entiendan en qué consiste el análisis económico para poder leer, evaluar y criticar este tipo de estudios. El siguiente artículo presenta una introducción al análisis económico de tecnologías sanitarias y describe los conceptos básicos en una evaluación económica en salud. Los autores utilizan principios económicos fundamentales y el concepto de eficiencia para defender el uso de esta herramienta en la toma de decisiones sanitarias. El artículo introduce el plano coste-efectividad como instrumento principal para presentar los resultados de estos estudios y explica cómo se deben medir los costes y beneficios en el análisis económico. Para facilitar la lectura y comprensión de esta introducción, se utilizan ejemplos de estudios económicos en el área del ictus (AU)

Summary. Economic evaluation of healthcare interventions is becoming increasingly important and are seen by decision makers as a useful tool on how best to allocate scarce resources efficiently by maximising the health of the population. It is therefore important that health care professionals understand the fundamentals of an economic analysis so that they can understand, evaluate and critically appraise published economic evaluations. This article presents an introduction to the economic analysis of health care interventions and describes the basic concepts of an economic evaluation. The authors introduce the concept of efficiency to defend the use of economic tools to guide or help decisions in healthcare. The article presents the cost-effectiveness plane as a useful instrument when presenting the results of an economic evaluation, and summarises the main ways on how costs and outcomes are measured. To help readers understand the concepts presented in this introduction, we draw on published examples of economic analyses undertaken in the field of stroke (AU)