EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE AND COST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS

Health care has become increasingly expensive and clinicians have come under increased scrutiny to critically appraise the economic impact o f medical programs and interventions. To ensure an equitable allocatio n of scarce resources and the attainment of maximal clinical benefit, it is vital to adhere to certain basic tenets of economic analysis and to understand the basic approach to cost-effectiveness analysis. Thes e principles are applied to critical care medicine and analogies are m ade to the methodological rigor of evidence-based medicine.