Pharmacoeconomics

Question 1

Resources can be categorised as..

Answer 1

Land
Labour
Capital
Time

Question 2

Satisfaction in economics is known as…

Answer 2

Utilities

We gain a certain amount of satisfaction from each economic decision and therefore will make such decisions based on the satisfaction we gain

Question 3

Marginal utility

Answer 3

The point at which where it isn’t really worth investing in the same product as the utility gained is less the money invested. This is tied to the principle of diminishing utility

Question 4

Opportunity costs

Answer 4

The cost of be unable to spend time/money on an opportunity due to the capital be locked up in other assets

Question 5

Economic evaluation

Answer 5

Comparison of two or more alternative treatments in terms of costs and consequences

Question 6

Quality adjusted life years (QALY)

Answer 6

Utility is quality of life and is deteremined by EQ-5D-5L health questionnaire giving a score out of 1

This is multiplied by the number of years

Question 7

Cost minimisation

Answer 7

Assumes effectiveness is equal

Intervention which achieves the desired outcome at the lowest price

Question 8

Cost effectiveness

Answer 8

Does not make assumptions on effectiveness

Beneifts usually measured in QALYs

Essentially looks for best value for money but only considers costs to the NHS

Question 9

Incremental cost effectiveness ratio (ICER)

Answer 9

Difference in treatment costs/ difference in effectiveness

Tied to diminishing utility of the utility gained decreasing over many repititions

Question 10

Cost benefit analysis

Answer 10

Compares medical outcomes and expresses it in monetary terms

Difficult due to the need to cost every factor

Most common method of assigning value is the ‘willingness to pay’ approach ie what are those extra few years actually worth to you