Methodological issues in the monetary valuation of benefits in healthcare.

Economic evaluation is concerned with comparing the costs and benefits of competing healthcare interventions in order to efficiently allocate resources. Whilst valuing costs is important, the valuation of benefits represents one of the greatest challenges facing health economists. This review considers the different techniques available for the valuation of healthcare benefits in monetary terms, and more specifically the contingent valuation method and discrete choice experiments. This review identifies some of the key issues and debates that have been published in the literature concerning the application of the techniques to healthcare and highlights important areas for future research.