Priority Setting Toolkit Guide to the Use of Economics in Healthcare Decision Making

This work provides a guide to how economics can be used to manage scarcity of resources in health services. It outlines the principles of economics in a non-technical manner, before going on to address the issues of how to apply the principles in day to day health services management.

Introduction.

The basic principles.

Alternative approaches.

Program budgeting and marginal analysis (PBMA): review of the literature.

Putting it into practice.

The challenges of data and time.

The challenge of the program budget: is it worth it?.

The challenge of disinvesting.

The challenges of measuring and valuing benefits.

The challenge of the organization.

Using evidence, public involvement and values.

Conclusion

Craig Mitton is the author of Priority Setting Toolkit: Guide to the Use of Economics in Healthcare Decision Making, published by Wiley.

Cameron Richard Donaldson is a health economist. He holds the Yunus Chair in Social Business & Health and is Pro Vice Chancellor at Glasgow Caledonian University, the University for the Common Good.