500 LIFESAVING INTERVENTIONS AND THEIR COST-EFFECTIVENESS

We gathered information on the cost-effectiveness of life-saving inter ventions in the United States from publicly available economic analyse s. ''Life-saving interventions'' were defined as any behavioral and/or technological strategy that reduces the probability of premature deat h among a specified target population. We defined cost-effectiveness a s the net resource costs of an intervention per year of life saved. To improve the comparability of cost-effectiveness ratios arrived at wit h diverse methods, we established fixed definitional goals and revised published estimates, when necessary and feasible, to meet these goals . The 587 interventions identified ranged from those that save more re sources than they cost, to those costing more than 10 billion dollars per year of life saved. Overall, the median intervention costs $ 42,00 0 per life-year saved. The median medical intervention costs $ 19,000/ life-year; injury reduction $ 48,000/life-year; and toxin control $ 2, 800,000/life-year. Cost/life-year ratios and bibliographic references for more than 500 life-saving interventions are provided.