Evidence-based anaesthesia and health economics

The aim of this chapter is to focus on evidence-based health economics in anaesthesia. More and more, requests for additional facilities will have to be based on detailed arguments supported by ‘hard evidence’ as to the gain to be expected from the patient's angle and the cost. Evidence-based clinical practice in anaesthesia isolated from economic issues is not an optimal goal. As clinicians we have to demonstrate not only the need for the use of evidence-based principles in economic evaluation, but also that such principles should themselves be based on health economics. This chapter shows how to bring economic evaluation and systematic review together, and how to use such evaluations in the clinical setting. It shows how economics can be used to broaden the evidence base for a more efficient and equitable health policy, and sets a future research agenda for this challenging area of work in Cochrane reviews dealing with anaesthesia topics.

Key words: health economics, cost-effectiveness, costs, anaesthesia, evidence-based medicine