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‘In with the old, out with the new’ – In search of ways to help health economists break their addiction to technology adoption

Friday 17 October 2014, 12.30PM to 1.30pm

Speaker(s): Professor Stirling Bryan, Director, Centre for Clinical Epidemiology & Evaluation, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, Professor, School of Population & Public Health, University of British Columbia

Abstract: At a time of intense pressure on health care budgets, the technology management challenge is for disinvestment in low-value technologies and re-investment in higher value alternatives. The aim of this paper is to explore ways in which health economists might begin to redress the observed imbalance in the evaluation space between new and existing (in-use) technologies. The goal is to facilitate the ready identification of inefficiencies in the current mix of technologies, and in turn promote allocative efficiency. Based on a scoping review of existing literature, the paper advocates for (1) a move away from the adoption focus towards technology management, with more analytic consideration of in-use technologies; and (2) a shift away from the piecewise approach to economic evaluation, where individual technologies are evaluated in turn, to consideration of clinical or disease pathways as a whole. The paper presents a case study in the area of prostate cancer, and outlines a conceptual framework for thinking through the benefits and challenges of moving in this direction.

Location: ARRC Auditorium A/RC/014

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Economic evaluation seminar dates

  • 10 December 2014
    Claire Hulme, Professor of Health Economics, University of Leeds