Exercise: Cost-Effectiveness Analysis III

This sample exercise and solution set supports the teaching pack on Cost-Effectiveness Analysis III, in which students are introduced to the different types of costs that are included in a cost-effectiveness analysis and learn how the perspective of the analysis helps to determine which costs would be included. Additionally, students learn the three basic steps to costing, identifying costs, measuring costs, and valuing costs, and become familiar with the recommendations of both the original and the more recent Panel on Cost-Effectiveness in Health and Medicine on conducting cost-effectiveness analyses. In addition to the sample exercise, materials include an instructor's note, videos, companion slides, a glossary, and an annotated bibliography.

Learning Objectives

• Describe different kinds of ‘costs’ that are included in a cost-effectiveness analysis and understand that the perspective of the analysis determines which costs are included in the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio.
• Describe the basic three steps to costing – identifying costs, measuring costs, and valuing costs.
• Be familiar with the Panel on Cost-Effectiveness in Health and Medicine and the general recommendations for conducting a cost-effectiveness analysis.

The exercise provides just 2-3 simple examples of the types of short questions that can be useful for practicing some of the skills covered in this teaching pack. These should be modified, tailored, and expanded upon to meet the goals of specific classes.

This teaching pack was developed by Sue J. Goldie at the Center for Health Decision Science, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The multimedia components were developed as part of a series of pilots in the CHDS Media Hub, led by Jake Waxman, where media-based pedagogy experiments contribute to new ways of thinking about short form content.