Short description
One of the critical issues of health financing policy is to ensure that the available resources are used equitably and efficiently. WHO-CHOICE was developed to provide policy makers with the evidence for deciding on the interventions and programmes which maximize health for the available resources. It reports the costs and effects of a wide range of health interventions in the 14 epidemiological sub-regions.A series of tools have been developed and are used by WHO-CHOICE for performing generalized cost-effectiveness analysis:
- PopMod (used to evaluate health adjusted life years gained for each intervention evaluated in WHO-CHOICE, ensuring comparability of results);
- CEA (Cost-Effectiveness Analysis) Country Contextualization Templates (used to address issues of efficiency in the allocation of scarce health resources, providing a method for comparing the relative costs as well as health gains of different health interventions).
Purpose
The objectives of WHO-CHOICE are to:
- Develop a standardized method for cost effectiveness analysis that can be applied to all interventions in different settings
- Develop and disseminate tools required to assess intervention costs and impacts at the population level
- Determine the costs and effectiveness of a wide range of health interventions
- Summarize the results in regional databases that will be available on the Internet
- Assist policy makers and other stakeholders to interpret and use the evidence
- Develop tools and provide support for country-level analysis.
Methodology and type of data required
WHO-CHOICE methods:
- Uses a standardized method for cost effectiveness analysis that can be applied to all interventions in different settings
- Costs and effectiveness of a wide range of health interventions at the WHO subregional level are available to download
- Sectoral analyses which compare interventions for a large range of diseases can contribute to discussions around Universal Health Care packages
- Tools required to assess intervention costs and impacts at the population level are available for uses at country level for contextualization activities
- The CHOICE team is available to assist policy makers and other stakeholders to interpret and use the evidence
- The team usually works with a country analyst and if no data is available for the respective country, regional data can be used for producing the estimates
Users/Target audience
Policy makers and health financing planners.
Organization
World Health Organization (WHO)
Contact
whochoice@who.int
Website
http://who.int/choice/en/
Keywords
cost-effectiveness analysis, benefit package design
