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Survivor Costs in Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
- Yoav Golan, MD;
- John B. Wong, MD; and
- Stephen G. Pauker, MD
- From Tufts-New England Medical Center, Boston, MA 02111.
IN RESPONSE:
Dr. Gandjour raises an interesting point: The exclusion of survivor costs (costs associated with a treatment because it extends the patient's life) could affect the calculated cost-effectiveness ratio. He suggests that we calculated unduly favorable cost-effectiveness ratios because we excluded such costs.
The purpose of cost-effectiveness analysis is to provide a metric of comparison of potential uses of limited resources (the “medical commons” [1]). There is no gold standard for the threshold of willingness to pay. To be useful, such analyses must …
This 100-word excerpt has been provided in the absence of an abstract.
