An illuminating and timely synthesis of methodological and clinical studies showing how medical costs can be established, how the value of clinical outcomes can be assessed, and how difficult choices can be rationally made. The methodological chapters review the conceptual and practical issues involved in estimating and interpreting health care costs, making health status and utility assessments, and statistically analyzing cost-effectiveness and clinical trials. The clinical chapters apply these methods to the major clinical areas of cardiology-primary prevention of coronary artery disease, acute coronary syndromes, angioplasty vs coronary bypass surgery, CABG vs medicine, congestive heart failure, arrhythmias, and cardiac surgery. Additional chapters consider the use of economic studies for policy purposes and the future of Medicare under a balanced budget in an aging America.

Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Klappentext
Given the limited ability of government to fund health care and the staggering cost of cardiovascular disease to society-an estimated $351.8 billion for 2003 in direct medical costs and lost productivity-critical choices must be made to reduce the burden of cardiovascular health care and minimize its collateral losses. In an illuminating synthesis of methodological and clinical studies, Cardiovascular Health Care Economics shows how costs can be established, how the value of clinical outcomes can be assessed, and how difficult choices can be rationally made. In the methodological chapters, well-known experts review the conceptual and practical issues involved in estimating and interpreting health care costs, making health status and utility assessments, and statistically analyzing cost-effectiveness and clinical trials. The clinical chapters apply these methods to the major clinical areas of cardiology-primary prevention of coronary artery disease, acute coronary syndromes, angioplasty vs coronary bypass surgery, CABG vs medicine, congestive heart failure, arrhythmias, and cardiac surgery. Additional chapters consider the use of economic studies for policy purposes and the future of Medicare under a balanced budget in an aging America.
Comprehensive and timely, Cardiovascular Health Care Economics offers today's cardiologists, administrators, policymakers, and investigators an enlightening introduction and up-to-date reference to cardiovascular health care economics, as well as a sound basis for making the good choices that will assure continued access to high-quality health care in the decades to come.

Inhalt
I. Methods.- 1 Nonfederal US Hospital Costs.- 2 Estimating the Costs of Cardiac Care Provided by the Hospitals of the US Department of Veterans Affairs.- 3 Estimating the Costs of Health Care Resources in Canada.- 4 US Physician Costs: Conceptual and Methodological Issues and Selected Applications.- 5 Indirect Health Care Costs: An Overview.- 6 Health Status Assessment.- 7 Utility Assessment.- 8 Introduction to Cost-Effectiveness Analysis.- 9 Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Alongside Clinical Trials: Statistical and Methodological Issues.- II. Clinical Applications.- 10 Costs of Care and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis: Primary Prevention of Coronary Artery Disease.- 11 Economics of Therapy for Acute Coronary Syndromes.- 12 Cost-Effectiveness of Percutaneous Coronary Interventions.- 13 Economic Comparisons of Coronary Angioplasty and Coronary Bypass Surgery.- 14 Costs of Coronary Artery Surgery and Cost-Effectiveness of CABG vs Medicine.- 15 Costs of Care and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis: Other Cardiac Surgery.- 16 Congestive Heart Failure.- 17 Current Economic Evidence Using Noninvasive Cardiac Testing.- 18 Cost-Effective Care in the Management of Conduction Disease and Arrhythmias.- 19 Comparing Cost-Utility Analyses in Cardiovascular Medicine.- 20 Beyond Heart Disease: Cost-Effectiveness as a Guide to Comparing Alternate Approaches to Improving the Nation's Health.- 21 Using Economic Studies for Policy Purposes.- 22 Medicare, the Aging of America, and the Balanced Budget.- Afterword: The Future of Economics in Cardiovascular Care and Research.