The result of the economic analysis will most often be an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio eg. costs/QALY. if quality-adjusted life years is used as the main outcome indicator. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio does not in itself determine that a technology is desirable. Decision makers need – implicitly or explicitly – to weigh the benefits of an intervention against the costs. The concept of a cost-effectiveness threshold is one way of expressing decision-makers willingness-to-pay for health benefits. If other type of economic evaluation is chosen, eg. cost benefit analysis, other types of measures are used to express results of the analysis, but most current economic analysis within HTA’s are done within the cost-effectiveness/cost-utility framework.

Sources of data used are specified under relevant issues under domains safety, effectiveness and costs. The ICER estimate might result from the economic model, using inputs from the safety and effectiveness domain.

Safety, Effectiveness

Guidelines for economic evaluation of Health Technologies: Canada, 3rd edition, 2006, Guidelines for Pharmacoeconomic Evaluations in Belgium, 2008