THE USE OF PHARMACOECONOMICS AS A DECISION MAKING TOOL IN
Date
2011-05-31
Authors
NAIDOO, PRENISHA
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The high cost of healthcare is of major concern to healthcare providers
throughout the world. Globally there has been an increase in the use of
pharmacoeconomic tools to help providers to make healthcare reimbursement
decisions .South Africa has also become increasingly sensitive to healthcare
spend and the South African government has announced proposals to make
pharmacoeconomic evaluations part of the drug registration process in the
country. It is unclear to what extent pharmacoeconomic evaluations are
currently being used in decision making in healthcare.
In this research, decision makers from the payer, healthcare prescriber and
pharmaceutical manufacturer sectors were interviewed to evaluate the level of
current use of pharmacoeconomic evaluations so as to determine the factors
driving and inhibiting the use of pharmacoeconomic evaluation tools. Twentyfive
semi-structured interviews were conducted and the data obtained were
analysed using content analysis, allowing for an in-depth assessment of
responses.
The research found that pharmacoeconomic evaluations are used at payer and
pharmaceutical manufacturer level but its use is limited at the healthcare
provider level. The need for cost containment, harmonisation and globalisation
in the pharmaceutical industry is a factor driving the use of pharmacoeconomic
evaluations. Although these evaluations are not yet a requirement in South
Africa, government regulations and requirements are an emerging factor. The
use of such evaluations is, however, limited by a lack of education and skills,
perceived bias, lack of credibility and perceived poor quality, and lack of
methodology, applicability and relevance of economic evaluations in the
decision maker’s context and the poor communication and reporting of data.
Description
MBA - WBS
Keywords
Healthcare, Economics of healthcare