In some clinical trials, it can be important to compare how much different treatments cost, as well as how well they work. This can be particularly important when two (or more) treatments are equally effective, but where one costs a lot more than the other.
Organisations like the NHS National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) need information about the costs of new (or existing) treatments, as well as how well they work.
The gathering of this information about costs is called health economics. Health economic evaluation gives researchers and policymakers a way to think about health benefits, and costs. This enables them to try to get the best health gain for the most people, within a limited budget.
For example, economic costs involved in treating cancer include the cost of treatment, care and recovery, as well as the costs of prevention, research and training of healthcare personnel.
Other costs include the economic costs of illness and premature death, the loss of economic productivity, decreases in the productivity of family members, and welfare and health insurance expenditure.
At the MRC Clinical Trials Unit, we work in partnership with the Department of Health Economics at York University to:
- Assess plans for new trials and, where appropriate, to build in an economic evaluation
- Develop the use of health economics to help prioritise trials
- Look at information which has been collected about costs as part of a clinical trial
- Develop research in economic evaluation
