In a climate of increasing budgetary pressures organisations, both public and private, are required to take into account economic considerations when making decisions. Economic analysis provides information that can strengthen a case for funding and is designed to be directly relevant to policy makers.

This course is run by the Health Economics Unit within the Centre for Health Policy and provides an introduction to the application of cost effectiveness analysis in health. This course is designed for policy makers, clinicians, researchers, managers and others working in the health sector with an interest in economic issues. No previous knowledge required. On completion of this course participants should have a better understanding of health priority setting and the application of cost-effectiveness analysis.

Specifically this course will provide participants with understanding of how economic analysis can be used to assist with the evaluation of health programs and how this information can aid decision making. The course will consist of short lectures, case studies and practical class exercises.

Course Dates:

• 2024 course dates are Tuesday 23rd & Wednesday 24th July 2024 (online)
• Registration is at 8:50am for a 9:00am start with the formal program finishing around 1:00pm each day
• Please contact us if you have any questions at health-economics@unimelb.edu.au

Course outline

Module 1: Introduction to Health Economics
Concepts in economics and economic evaluation will be introduced including the role of health economic evaluation, the types of economic evaluation (cost minimisation, cost-effectiveness, cost utility and cost benefit) and methods for valuing health outcomes using measures like health-related quality of life to produce quality-adjusted life years (QALYs).

Module 2: Cost measurement
An introduction to the concepts involved in measuring costs for economic evaluation. The module will cover the principles behind measurement of cost and will teach about how to cost an intervention or program, how to analyse cost data and how to present cost results. There will be an exercise related to costing an intervention or program in practice.

Module 3: Outcome measurement
Concepts involved in measuring outcomes for use in economic evaluation will be covered. Participants will learn about the different measures of health status, techniques used to value health states, the use of utility scales and methods to calculate a quality-adjusted life year. During the session participants will completed a health state valuation exercise.

Module 4: Interpretation of economic evaluation results for policy
An introduction on how to properly interpret and use cost-effectiveness information to inform policy decisions, especially in relation to priority setting. Participants will be introduced to the understanding, use and misuse of concepts such as cost-effectiveness ratios, league tables, incremental ratios, ceiling ratios, reporting and uncertainty. Participants will complete an exercise relating to use of league tables.

Concluding group exercise: Application of economic evaluation methods
Participants are provided an opportunity to consider their own interventions or choose from the examples provided and apply the health economic concepts they have learnt from the course.

Final session (Optional): Interested participants are invited to have a short discussion with the course leaders about the health economics involved in particular projects they are currently working on.

Download material from the previous edition

How much it is?

• Course dates: Tuesday 23rd & Wednesday 24th July 2024 (online)
• Fees:
  • $450 (Early bird)
  • $560 (Normal rate)
• Location: Online
• Applications close: The day prior to course commencement

Discounts for students and for people from low-to-middle income countries are available.
Request by emailing health-economics@unimelb.edu.au

Application procedure

Register now

Applications for courses can be filled out online.

Applications close the day before the course date.

For participants registering close to the course date, please be informed that we may not be able to cater to extra requests or specific dietary requirements. We are also unable to guarantee the availability of complete participant materials for the course (name tags, completion certificates). Where completion certificates are not available these will be mailed out to you after the course.

Further Enquiries:

E: health-economics@unimelb.edu.au
Ph: +61 3 8344 9111