Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2016Essential Package of Cancer Control: Costs, Affordability, and Feasibility of an Essential Package of Cancer Control Interventions in LMIC Countries
Investments in cancer control-prevention, detection, diagnosis, surgery, palliative care-are needed in low-income and particularly in …
Investments in cancer control-prevention, detection, diagnosis, surgery, palliative care-are needed in low-income and particularly in middle-income countries, where most of the world's cancer deaths occur without treatment or palliation. To help countries expand locally appropriate services, Disease Control Priorities, 3rd edition developed an essential package of potentially cost-effective measures for countries to consider and adapt. Interventions included in the package are: prevention of tobacco-related cancer and virus-related liver and cervical cancers; diagnosis and treatment of…
Global | Costing Methods | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology -
ArticlePublication 2016UHC for Mental, Neurological, and Substance Use Disorders: An Extended CEA
This study uses extended cost effectiveness analysis (ECEA) to analyze the impacts of universal public …
This study uses extended cost effectiveness analysis (ECEA) to analyze the impacts of universal public finance (UPF) on epilepsy, schizophrenia, and depression in India and Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government has launched a National Mental Health Strategy which explicitly recognizes the importance of an efficient, equitable scale-up of mental health care within a broader, ongoing effort to increase levels of health insurance in the general population. The analyses show that enhanced coverage of effective treatment leads…
Global | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Mental Health | Social Determinants | Health Systems | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2016Using Top-Down and Bottom-Up Costing Approaches in LMICs
In the absence of routine cost data collection, estimating the incremental costs of scaling-up novel …
In the absence of routine cost data collection, estimating the incremental costs of scaling-up novel technologies in low-income and middle-income countries is a methodologically challenging and substantial empirical undertaking. Using the example of costing the scale-up of Xpert Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB)/resistance to riframpicin (RIF) in South Africa, the authors estimate costs, by applying two distinct approaches of bottom-up and top-down costing, together with an assessment of processes and capacity. The unit costs measured using the…
Global | Costing Methods | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Health Systems | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2016Departures from Cost-Effectiveness Recommendations: Health System Constraints
Cost-effectiveness analysis assumes a single constraint, in the form of the budget constraint, whereas in reality …
Cost-effectiveness analysis assumes a single constraint, in the form of the budget constraint, whereas in reality decision makers may be faced with numerous other constraints. The objective of this article is to develop a typology of constraints that may act as barriers to implementation of cost-effectiveness recommendations. Six categories of constraints are considered: the design of the health system; costs of implementing change; system interactions between interventions; uncertainty in estimates of costs and benefits; weak governance;…
Middle East & North Africa | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Education/Labor | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa | Latin America & Caribbean | Asia & Pacific -
ArticlePublication 2016Accounting for Technical, Ethical, and Political Factors in Priority Setting
This article investigates two cases of priority setting to explore how, in addition to technical …
This article investigates two cases of priority setting to explore how, in addition to technical considerations, ethical and political factors shape the allocation of health resources. First, they discuss how Thai authorities adjudicated a coverage decision for HLA-B*1502 screening, which meets the national cost-effectiveness threshold for only some of the conditions it can detect. Second, they consider England’s Cancer Drugs Fund to investigate the interplay of technical decision making and political reality. The findings suggest four concluding…
Global | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Climate/Environment | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Europe -
ArticlePublication 2016Challenges of Prioritization
Cost-effectiveness analysis has traditionally been applied primarily to very specific interventions, such as drugs and …
Cost-effectiveness analysis has traditionally been applied primarily to very specific interventions, such as drugs and diagnostics; in addition, the evidence base drawn on for evaluating such interventions is relatively good, given the medical research industry surrounding their testing. However, with increasing success in controlling infectious diseases, many of the health challenges facing countries concern broad threats to health with multiple causes, such as obesity, where the relationship between policy action and health benefit is not…
Global | Priority Setting/Ethics | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Mental Health | Health Systems | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2016Using Cost-Effectiveness Evidence to Inform Health Service Provision
This article discusses three challenges of using cost-effectiveness thresholds to inform whether a third-party payer …
This article discusses three challenges of using cost-effectiveness thresholds to inform whether a third-party payer will fund a particular service. First, how is the appropriate cost-effectiveness threshold - or threshold range - to be determined? (And should there be a single threshold or multiple thresholds?) Second, how can the valuation of health benefits be refined to better capture the value of treatments to patients and to the economy as a whole? Third, how should a…
Global | Priority Setting/Ethics | Evidence Synthesis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Policy/Regulation | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2016Universal Health Coverage as a Pathway to the Sustainable Development Goals
The inclusion of universal health coverage (UHC) as a target in the health Sustainable Development …
The inclusion of universal health coverage (UHC) as a target in the health Sustainable Development Goals speaks to its importance as both a foundational and an end goal for global health. Across the globe, countries are in varying stages of progress toward UHC. To help countries where there is a wide gap between the reality of limited access and the aspirations of universality, the author argues that there must be prioritized investments to progressively realize…
Global | Priority Setting/Ethics | Social Determinants | Health Systems | Global Governance | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2016Defining a Health Benefits Package: What Are the Necessary Processes?
There is immense interest worldwide in the notion of universal health coverage. A major policy …
There is immense interest worldwide in the notion of universal health coverage. A major policy focus in moving toward universal health coverage has been on the key policy question: what services should be made available and under what conditions? This article focuses on how a feasible set of universal health coverage services can be explicitly defined to create what is commonly known as a “health benefits package”, a set of services that can be feasibly financed…
Global | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health Systems | Culture/Society | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Health/Medicine