Grutters et al show that economic assessments can inform the development of new health technologies at an early stage. This is an important contribution to health services and policy research, which implies a “shift away” from the more traditional forms of academic health economic modeling. Because transforming established disciplinary traditions is both valuable and de...

A recent paper by Grutters et al makes the case for early health economic modeling in the development of health technologies. A number of examples of the value of early modeling are given, with analyses being performed at different stages in the development of several non-drug health technologies. This commentary acknowledges the contribution of the paper by Grutters et...

BACKGROUND The demand for economic models that evaluate cancer treatments is increasing, as healthcare decision makers struggle for ways to manage their budgets while providing the best care possible to patients with cancer. Yet, after nearly 2 decades of cultivating and refining techniques for modeling the cost-effectiveness and budget impact of cancer therapies, serious methodologic and polic...

BACKGROUND Medical nutrition is a specific nutrition category either covering specific dietary needs and/or nutrient deficiency in patients or feeding patients unable to eat normally. Medical nutrition is regulated by a specific bill in Europe and in the US, with specific legislation and guidelines, and is provided to patients with special nutritional needs and indications for nutrition support...

Background To assess whether early health economic modeling helps to distinguish those healthcare innovations that are potentially cost-effective from those that are not potentially cost-effective. We will also study what information is retrieved from the health economic models to inform further development, research and implementation decisions.   Methods We performed s...

BACKGROUND The objective of this study is to identify and review the methodological quality of health economic evaluations of medical devices performed in the People's Republic of China. To our knowledge, no such investigations have been performed to date. METHODS A systematic literature review involving searches of Medline, Medline In-Process, the National Health Service Economic Evaluation ...