Health Economics Information Resources: A Self-Study Course: Module 1

National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR)

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Modules Available for Study:

	Module 1, Part 1: Scope of Health Economics Module 1, Part 2: Key Information Sources
	Module 2: Sources and Characteristics of Information
	Module 3: Identification and Retrieval of Published Health Economic Evaluations
	Module 4 : Principles of Critical Appraisal of Health Economic Evaluations

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	Key General Economics Concepts
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Health Economics Information Resources: A Self-Study Course

Module 1, Part 2: Key Information Sources

Statistical data

Health economics depends on large amounts of data in the following areas for credibility:

- health care financing
- cost of care
- demographic
- epidemiological
- socioeconomic
- economic burden of disease (cost of illness)
- comparative
availability and sources of statistical data will be influenced by the type of health care system in place*
availability and sources of statistical data may vary between regions within countries

HSRR (Health Services/Sciences Research Resources) is an important new searchable database being developed by NICHSR. HSRR provides descriptions of data sets used in health services research, including data sets pertaining to health economics.

*see Module 2 on information most relevant to the US

Statistical data - sources

Many national, state, regional and local entities provide data that can be useful in researching health economics. Several are listed below:

government departments and agencies
private health policy research organizations ("think tanks")
health care providers
health-related organizations such as associations, NGOs (non-governmental organizations)
health insurance industry
healthcare information technology industry

International initiatives such as OECD and WHO (listed below) are large providers of health data.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development
- OECD Health Data
- comparative cross-national data
World Health Organization
- Statistical Information Service (WHOSIS)

*see also Module 2: International Data Providers

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