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 to consider how these approaches could contribute to their own 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 medical researchers who would like to gain a critical insight into the evaluation of cost-effectiveness in 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 Ultra) 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 5 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.

94% of attendees recommend this course*.
*Attendee feedback from 2025.

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

“I really enjoyed the course and thought there was a nice balance between group and practical work." - Course feedback, July 2025

“Efficiently run. Clear lectures and resources. Live responses to questions. Appropriate break times. Continued access to the resources so it's possible to go back a recap on the learning objectives - it was a lot to absorb." - Course feedback, July 2025

“I now can read an EE paper and understand what they did and why. I can also have better-informed conversations with health economists when planning clinical research studies." - Course feedback, July 2025

“I now have a better understanding of what's involved in an economic evaluation, what kinds of EE can be done, and how they are presented/used. This should be helpful if I'm involved in designing that might need to include EE elements." - Course feedback, July 2025

“I thought each topic was introduced well and clearly. The course tutors were all very knowledgeable and good teachers and happy to answer questions. The slides were detailed so could be used to catch up on any missed concepts. I thought the range of topics was also good and it was explained how one linked to another." - Course feedback, July 2025

“Overall the content of the lectures was very interesting and informative." - Course feedback, July 2025

“Really well explained, great to ask us to do quizes and work through examples in order to embed learning." - Course feedback, July 2025

“The information was relevant, suitable for complete beginners, presented well. Most activities ran to time. All course facilitators were clearly very experienced and knowledgeable." - Course feedback, July 2025

“Very comprehensive course, which introduces all the key concepts." - Course feedback, July 2025