Introduction Major objectives of this book Waht is cost-effectiveness/cost-benefit analysis ? Chapter plan Description of specific chapters 2 - Evidence of effectviness: evaluating is quality Nature of the evidence Quality of the evidence Extensions of effectiveness evidence required for estimation of cost-effectiveness Summary 3 - Utility assessment for estimating quality-adjusted life years Conceptual framework The concept of relative importance The concept of utility Methods for assessing utility Psychological versus economic models Cognitive limitations Whose preferences should be used in the model ? Fixed versus variable preference models Application and criticism: the Oregon experiment Summary 4 - Measuring costs Ideals and realities in cost measurement Practice advice for measuring costs summary 5 - From cost-effectiveness ratios to resource allocation: where to draw the line ? The basic cost-effectiveness model Cost-effectiveness ratios form different perspectives Incremental cost-effectiveness analysis Determining a critical ratio Cost-benefit or cost-effectiveness analysis ? Conclusion 6 - Valuing health care benefits in money terms Standards and definitions The need and settigns for analysis What difference does money make ? Measuring benefits Problems with willingness-to-pay measures Insurance and cost-benefit analysis Conclusion 7 - Discounting health effects for medical decisions The rationale for discounting Problems with the failure to discounting health effects for medical decisions The rationale for discouting Problems with the failure to discount Discounting and medical decisions under uncertainly Modeling and estimating rates of discount for health Conclusion 8 - Statistical issues in cost-effectiveness contexts with biased risk perceptions 8 - Statistical issues in cost-effectiveness analyses Estimation issues Problems in using administrativeness analysis Conclusion 9 - Decision trees and Markov models in cost-effectiveness research Decision trees Modeling long-term consequences Appendix: further reading 10 - The use of cost-effectiveness/cost-benefit analysis in actual decision making: current status and prospects Current applications of cost-effectiveness/cost-effectiveness/cost-benefit analysis in health policymaking A brief research agenda