Economic evaluation is an important component of the application of economics research to health care decision making. Increasingly health care funders and providers wish to assess the cost-effectiveness (efficiency) of interventions, not just their safety and effectiveness.
Methods in economic evaluation are developing rapidly and CHERE has a strong focus on the application of rigorous and up to date methods, and extending these applications to complex interventions. The assessment of health outcomes that are relevant to end users, sensitive to differences in alternative interventions, and valid in comparing across health care services remains a major challenge in applying economic evaluation.