Health economic evaluations
What are the requirements of a relevant and appropriate economic evaluation of a health intervention, and which practical methods can lead us towards meeting these requirements? These are key questions in my work and I am particularly interested in the role of models and clinical trials in practical evaluations. Key aspects such as extrapolation, evidence synthesis, handling of uncertainty and assessing the value of further research are all part of my research interests.
Health policy and implications for economic evaluations
The role of economic evaluations within the health policy and health-care decision making is continuously debated. The Swedish health-care system has several layers of decision making including the national level with the Dental and pharmaceutical benefit agency (TLV) making decisions on drug reimbursement, and bodies like the National board of health and welfare and the SBU issuing guidelines on a national level. There are also regional and local levels of decision making at the level of county councils, hospitals and specific clinics. Health economic evaluations in some shape and form are used at all levels of decision making, although one may argue that there is a lock of consistency in their use across the levels. In my work I seek to understand how these levels are interlinked and what the implications would be for health economic evaluation methodology.