Introduction to Economic Evaluation

This 3-day course will be online and will comprise mostly live lecture material with some pre-recorded lectures, interspersed with practical sessions that provide a hands-on introduction to economic evaluation in healthcare. There will be opportunities for participants to appraise published economic evaluations and discuss their own planned and ongoing economic evaluation research topics. Attendees should allow approximately 6 hours for each of the three days of the course.

By the end of the course participants should be able to:

1. understand the rationale for measuring cost-effectiveness within the health and care sectors;
2. distinguish between different forms of economic evaluation and, in a given context, give an explanation as to which approach should be used;
3. explain the techniques used to measure and value costs and benefits (including QALYs and capability measures) in an economic evaluation;
4. understand the basic methods of model-based economic evaluation;
5. interpret the results of an economic evaluation;
6. critically appraise published economic evaluations; and
7. understand how economic evaluation influences local and national decision making in England.

The course is intended for public health, NHS and social care professionals and researchers who are, or will be, involved in research projects that evaluate the cost-effectiveness of health and care. The course will also be useful for professionals who would like a better understanding of the quality of published economic evaluations and how they feed into local and national decision making.

This course will cover:

1. why we need economic evaluation of health care interventions;
2. key concepts in using health and care resources efficiently;
3. identification, measurement and valuation of resource use to create costs;
4. identification, measurement and valuation of health benefits and benefits beyond health, including the use of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and capability measures;
5. presenting and interpreting the results of economic evaluations;
6. applying decision analysis and Markov models in economic evaluation;
7. critically appraising the quality of published economic evaluations; and
8. translating economic evidence into health policy.

The course organisers are Dr Joanna Thorn and Dr Petra Baji. Dr Thorn is a health economist with expertise in economic evaluation conducted alongside randomised controlled trials, and an interest in trials methodology. Her research interests focus mainly on costing methodology. Dr Baji is a health economist with expertise in choice experiments, outcome measures, economic evaluations and costing studies. Her research mostly focuses on musculoskeletal conditions.

Teaching staff with expertise in clinical trials, economic evaluation, health policy, modelling, qualitative research and outcomes will be drawn from the Health Economics and Health Policy at Bristol (HEHP@Bristol) team, with some guest lecturers.

To make sure the course is suitable for you and you will benefit from attending, please ensure you meet the following prerequisites before booking:

Before booking this course, please make sure you read the information provided above about the target audience and prerequisites. It is important that you have access to the relevant IT resources needed for the course and meet the knowledge prerequisites to ensure you can get the most from the course.

Bookings are taken via our online booking system, for which you must register an account. To check if you are eligible for free or discounted courses please see our fees and voucher packs page. All bookings are subject to our terms & conditions, which can be read in full here.

For help and support with booking a course refer to our booking information page, FAQs or feel free to contact us directly. For available payment options please see: How to pay your short course fees.

Participants are granted access to our virtual learning platform (Blackboard) 1 to 2 weeks in advance of the course. This allows time for any pre-course work to be completed and to familiarise with the platform.

To gain the most from the course, we recommend that you attend in full and participate in all interactive components. We endeavour to record all live lecture sessions and upload these to the online learning environment within 24 hours. This allows course participants to review these sessions at leisure and revisit them multiple times. Please note that we do not record breakout sessions.

All course participants retain access to the online learning materials and recordings for 3 months after the course. 

University of Bristol staff and postgraduate students who do not wish to attend the full course may instead register for access to the 'Materials & Recordings' version of this course: Further information and bookings.

Here is a sample of feedback from the last run of the course:

"The lecturers were all fantastic, and I especially liked the chance to examine a real-world example in small groups." - Course feedback, July 2024

"I enjoyed the fact the sessions were live and that was a mix of breakout rooms and group lecture." - Course feedback, July 2024

"All round best short course I have done." - Course feedback, July 2024