The DH register of cost-effectiveness studies: content and quality.

The Department of Health has recently published a register of economic evaluations of health care treatments and programmes, to assist health care decision-makers to assess the value for money from alternative ways of allocating scarce resources. If the register is to be useful, it is important that decision-makers have an appreciation of the methodological quality of the studies contained in the register, and hence the confidence that can be placed in the results. This paper outlines an approach for assessing the methodological quality of economic evaluations, and the result of its application to studies contained in the register. Comments are made about the interpretation of the existing register and the future reporting of economic evaluations.