USING ECONOMICS ALONGSIDE CLINICAL-TRIALS - WHY WE CANNOT CHOOSE THE EVALUATION TECHNIQUE IN ADVANCE

When drafting protocols for the use of economic evaluation alongside c linical trials, it is common to have to specify which type of economic evaluation is going to be carried out. Will it be a cost-benefit anal ysis (CBA), cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) or a cost-utility analys is (CUA)? It is our contention that prior specification of the appropr iate economic technique is not possible, in the majority of cases, unt il data on effectiveness and cost are actually available. In this lett er, we aim to demonstrate the thinking behind our contention and to il lustrate this with two case studies; one of a recent randomised trial, the other of a trial currently in progress.