Economic evaluation and the rational diffusion and use of health technology.

In principle, economic evaluation provides a suitable framework for the assessment of the costs and benefits of health technologies. However, despite a rapid growth in the publication of cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis in health care, there is little evidence that economic evaluation has yet become part of an integrated approach to technology assessment. This paper, based on the findings of a European Community project on economic appraisal of health technology, discusses how the design and conduct of economic evaluations can be improved so as to increase their relevance to health care decision making, and how policies on the diffusion and use of health technology can be devised so as to make fuller use of the economic evaluations that are carried out.