The influence of economic evaluation studies on decision making. A European survey. The EUROMET group.

Despite the growing activity in the field of health economics very little is known about the influence of economic evaluation studies on health care decision making in the EU member states. Several investigations about the impact of health economic studies on decision making have been performed, but most of them did not involve decision makers themselves. In this paper the results of the EUROMET survey are reported and discussed. Different types of decision makers in nine European countries were surveyed by postal questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. Questions include issues about the extent of knowledge about economic evaluation, the actual and potential use of study results as well as barriers and incentives in the use of studies. It is concluded that despite the general positive attitude knowledge about the formal methodology is rather limited. Accordingly, results of economic evaluation studies are not widely used in decision making. The results show that institutional dimensions, such as difficulties in transferring budgets, are viewed as important barriers. Also, the lack of credibility of studies is assigned a high relevance. Moreover, decision makers wish for a better explanation of the practical relevance of studies and feel that there is a need for more training in health economics. Considering these requirements a number of recommendations for enhancing the value of health economic studies are given.