This 3-day course will be online and will comprise a mix of live and pre-recorded lecture material, interspersed with practical sessions that provide a hands-on introduction to economic evaluation in healthcare. There will be opportunities for participants to appraise published economic evaluations and discuss their own planned and ongoing economic evaluation research topics. Attendees should allow approximately 6 hours for each of the three days of the course.

By the end of the course participants should be able to:

1. understand the rationale for measuring cost-effectiveness within the health and care sectors;
2. distinguish between different forms of economic evaluation and, in a given context, give an explanation as to which approach should be used;
3. explain the techniques used to measure and value costs and benefits (including QALYs and capability measures) in an economic evaluation;
4. understand the basic methods of model-based economic evaluation;
5. interpret the results of an economic evaluation;
6. critically appraise published economic evaluations; and
7. understand how economic evaluation influences local and national decision making in England.

The course is intended for public health, NHS and social care professionals and researchers who are, or will be, involved in research projects that evaluate the cost-effectiveness of health and care. The course will also be useful for professionals who would like a better understanding of the quality of published economic evaluations and how they feed into local and national decision making.

This course will cover:

1. why we need economic evaluation of health care interventions and the theories that inform evaluation;
2. key concepts in using health and care resources efficiently;
3. identification, measurement and valuation of resource use to create costs;
4. identification, measurement and valuation of health benefits and benefits beyond health, including the use of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and capability measures;
5. presenting and interpreting the results of economic evaluations;
6. applying decision analysis and Markov models in economic evaluation;
7. critically appraising the quality of published economic evaluations; and
8. translating economic evidence into health policy.

The course organisers are Dr Joanna Thorn and Dr Petra Baji. Dr Thorn is a health economist with expertise in economic evaluation conducted alongside randomised controlled trials, and an interest in trials methodology. Her research interests focus mainly on costing methodology. Dr Baji is a health economist with expertise in choice experiments, outcome measures, economic evaluations and costing studies. Her research mostly focuses on musculoskeletal conditions.

Teaching staff with expertise in clinical trials, economic evaluation, health policy, modelling, qualitative research and outcomes will be drawn from the Health Economics Bristol (HEB) team, with some guest lecturers.

To make sure the course is suitable for you and you will benefit from attending, please ensure you meet the following prerequisites before booking:

Before booking this course, please make sure you read the information provided above about the target audience and prerequisites. It is important that you have access to the relevant IT resources needed for the course and meet the knowledge prerequisites to ensure you can get the most from the course.

Bookings are taken via our online booking system, for which you must register an account. To check if you are eligible for free or discounted courses please see our fees and voucher packs page. All bookings are subject to our terms & conditions, which can be read in full here.

For help and support with booking a course refer to our booking information page, FAQs or feel free to contact us directly. For available payment options please see: How to pay your short course fees.

Participants are granted access to our virtual learning platform (Blackboard) 1 to 2 weeks in advance of the course. This allows time for any pre-course work to be completed and to familiarise with the platform.

To gain the most from the course, we recommend that you attend in full and participate in all interactive components. We endeavour to record all live lecture sessions and upload these to the online learning environment within 24 hours. This allows course participants to review these sessions at leisure and revisit them multiple times. Please note that we do not record breakout sessions.

All course participants retain access to the online learning materials and recordings for 3 months after the course. 

University of Bristol staff and postgraduate students who do not wish to attend the full course may instead register for access to the 'Materials & Recordings' version of this course: Further information and bookings.

88% of attendees recommend this course*.
*Attendee feedback from 2021-2022

Here is a sample of feedback from the last run of the course:

"I think all the facilitators were super helpful and the exercises were really interesting".
Course feedback, February 2022

"Overall it was a good course that gave a thorough introduction on how economic evaluation works and is applied".
Course feedback, February 2022 

"It has given me a good overview of health economics which will be useful in my clinical practice and which I will also be able to apply in my research".
Course feedback, February 2022 

"The course provided me with lots of valuable information on the overall approach to cost-effectiveness analyses. I will surely make good use of this in my future work as a clinical pharmacologist".
Course feedback, February 2022

"One of the best courses I have attended on a very new subject. I really feel I have learnt a lot and can now understand a paper! Also very useful to have these materials online that I can go back and revise and read again, watch the recorded videos again. Thank you so much to all the speakers and moderators".
Course feedback, February 2022

"I liked that the course was very interactive. I really enjoyed the quizes at the start of each day. The group work sessions were useful too and the use of polls during the lectures".
Course feedback, February 2022

"Very good online blackboard system and really easy to use. Very organised. Amazing useful and relevant content".
Course feedback, February 2022 

"Great course format including a good balance between lectures and group sessions. I found all presentations relevant and well-conducted".
Course feedback, February 2022

"Very well organised and structured course. The faculty are very strong academics with vast expertise in HE".
Course feedback, February 2022 

"I liked the mix of live lectures and group work. Active participation was encouraged and reinforced the learning process".
Course feedback, February 2022