Quality assessment of health economic evaluation

Abstract

In Thailand, the results of economic evaluations have increasingly been used to help improve the transparency of health technology prioritization and to inform the resource allocation decision-making process. However, variable quality can mean that application of study results can be limited. To help improve uniformity and widen the application of results, quality assessment of health economic evaluations is crucial. By subjecting health economic evaluations to a rigorous quality assessment process, decision-makers can choose to only use findings from studies that reach the appropriate standard as the basis for policy-making. This article gives a summary of the three key areas to examine when assessing quality-1) data sources, 2) result reporting and 3) and analysis methodology. It is hoped that this will help provide critical guidance to users of economic evaluation results to ensure that they understand and are able to perform quality assessment prior to applying study findings.