Economic Evaluation in Child Health

Guidelines for conducting health economic evaluations have become increasingly standardized, however they don't address the unique concerns of the paediatric population. The challenges of measuring costs and consequences in children, from neonate to late adolescence, are numerous and complex. With the growing acceptance of economic evidence to guide decisions in health systems facing economic constraints, it is imperative that these challenges be considered so that this population is not left out of evidence-based decisions. The time has come for a textbook to address economic evaluation in child health. This book is divided into three sections: Methods, Applications, and Using evidence for decision-making, with chapters contributed by international experts. The Methods section presents detailed discussions of measuring lifetime costs and consequences, capturing productivity losses, obtaining unbiased self- and proxy reports, incorporating externalities, choosing valid outcome measures, assessing utility, and designing studies using value of information. The Applications section reviews economic evidence in common childhood conditions and areas of investigation, including newborn screening, harm prevention, mental health services, brain injury, asthma, and immunization. The final section explores the use of economic evidence in decision-making, and includes a description of the WHO-CHOICE approach, the role of clinical research, how to value health gains by children, and the emerging field of health technology assessment. In addition to an emphasis on methods, a deliberate effort was made to include issues relevant to developing countries, where the burden of childhood disease is greatest, and for whom high quality economic evidence is critical. Contributors to this volume - Moses Aikins, Senior Lecturer, School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy, Planning and Management, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana Philippe Beutels, Senior Lecturer, Health Economics, Centre for Health Economics Research and Modeling Infectious Diseases (CHERMID), Centre for the Evaluation of Vaccination (CEV), Vaccine & Infectious Disease Institute (VAXINFECTIO), University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium Katherine B. Bevans, Assistant Research Professor, Division of General Pediatrics, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, USA Robert E. Black, Edgar Berman Professor and Chair, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA Werner B.F. Brouwer, Department of Health Policy & Management and Institute for Medical Technology Assessment, Erasmus University Medical Centre / Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands Sarah Byford, Senior Lecturer, King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London, UK Jonathan D. Campbell, Senior Post-Doctoral Fellow, Pharmaceutical Outcomes, Research and Policy Program, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington, Seattle, USA Vania Costa, Research Associate, Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada Gillian Currie, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Departments of Paediatrics and Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada Sarah Curtis, Assistant Professor, Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada Kim Dalziel, Senior Research Fellow, Health Economics and Policy Group, Division of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia David B. Evans, Director, Department of Health Systems Financing, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland Christopher B. Forrest, Mary D. Ames Professor of Pediatrics and Advocacy, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, USA Tessa Tan-Torres Edejer, Coordinator, Costs, Effectiveness, Expediture and Priority Setting (CEP), Health System Financing, Health Systems and Services, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland E. Michael Foster, Professor, Maternal and Child Health and Health Policy and Administration, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA Andreas Gerber, Institute for Health Economics and Clinical Epidemiology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany Y. Ingrid Goh, Department of Pharmaceutical Science, University of Toronto, Division of Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada Scott D. Grosse, Senior Health Economist, Office of the Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Atlanta, USA Raymond Hutubessy, Economist, Initiative for Vaccine Research (IVR), World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva, Switzerland Terry Klassen, Professor and Chair, Regional Program Clinical Director Child Health, Capital Health, Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada Gideon Koren, Senior Scientist and Director, The Motherisk Program, Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics and Physiology/Pharmacology, The University of Toronto, Ivey Chair in Molecular Toxicology, The University of Western Ontario, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada Stavros Petrou, Health Economist, National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford (Old Road Campus), Oxford, England Ali I. Raja, Assistant Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, USA Leonie Segal, Professor, Health Economics, Health Economics and Policy Group, Division of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia Donald S. Shepard, Professor, Schneider Institutes for Health Policy, Heller School, Brandeis University, Waltham, USA Jose A. Suaya, Schneider Institutes for Health Policy, Heller School, Brandeis University, Waltham, USA Sean D. Sullivan, Professor of Pharmacy, Public Health and Medicine; Director, Pharmacetical Outcomes Research and Policy Program, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington, Seattle, USA Lillian Sung, Scientist and Assistant Professor, Department of Paediatrics, University of Toronto, Department of Paediatric Haematology/Oncology, Division of Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada J. Mick Tilford, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Health Policy Management, College of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Center for Applied Research and Evaluation, Little Rock, USA Wendy J. Ungar, Senior Scientist, Associate Professor, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, University of Toronto, Division of Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada N. Job A. van Exel, MSc, Health Economist, Department of Health Policy & Management and Institute for Medical Technology Assessment, Erasmus University Medical Centre / Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands Damian G. Walker, Professor, Health Economics, Health Systems Program, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA Andrew R. Willan, Senior Scientist and Professor, Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada Lara J. Wolfson, Scientist, Initiative for Vaccine Research, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland