From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia.
Health economics is a
branch of
economics concerned with the
formal analysis of costs,
benefits, management and
consequences of
health care. Health economics
often uses
mathematical models to
synthesise data from
biostatistics and
epidemiology for support of
medical decision making, both
for individuals and for wider
health policy.
Often also termed as
medical economics, the
economics of health and health
care according to Culyer [1] is
the branch of economics concerned
with the application of economic
theory to phenomena and problems
associated with health and health
care. Topics, among others,
include the meaning and
measurement of health status, the
production of health and health
care, the demand for health and
health services, health economic
evaluation, health insurance, the
analysis of health care markets,
health care financing, and
hospital economics.
References
[1] Culyer, AJ (1989) A
Glossary of the more common terms
encountered in health economics"
in MS Hersh-Cochran and KP Cochran
(eds) Compendium of English
Language Course Syllabi and
Textbooks in Health Economics,
Copenhagen, WHO, 215-234.
