The relevance of health economics to vision care

2 May 2005
Volume 06, Issue 2

Helping you to understand the basic concepts of health economics.

Introduction 

In today’s cost-conscious environment there is a demand for value for money in the allocation of healthcare resources. Economic evaluation is an accepted method of appraising healthcare programmes, and has been used extensively within the area of healthcare. However, economic evaluations in the area of vision science are not routinely performed. Lack of knowledge and expertise in the area of health economics acts as a barrier for the profession as other healthcare professions routinely (and systematically) use health economic data to secure additional funding based on cost-effectiveness evidence. Such evidence is now routinely used by decision-makers to inform policy decisions, and failure to supply such evidence disadvantages both the profession and decisionmakers.

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