Types of Socioeconomic Evaluation

Abstract

Socioeconomic evaluations are not a replacement for clinical research that assesses the efficacy of medications; rather, they are an adjunct to clinical or biomedical research. Socioeconomic evaluation techniques bring useful additional information to guide coverage policy, reimbursement, and clinical decisions. While biomedical research is aimed at providing evidence for the clinical efficacy of medications, socioeconomic evaluations examine the effects of drugs on a much broader range of factors including:

• 1. the use and cost of medical resources

• 2. the use and cost of resources outside the medical care market

• 3. the value of wages lost as a result of illness or disability

• 4. the patients’ social, emotional and physical well-being.