Jefz. Rijkom et al., Differences in attitudes, knowledge and use of economic evaluations in decision-making in the Netherlands - The Dutch results from the EUROMET project, PHARMACOECO, 18(2), 2000, pp. 149-160
Objective: To investigate differences in attitudes, knowledge and actual us
e of economic evaluations in different groups of decision-makers, and to co
mpare the results from the Netherlands with the overall European results of
the European Network on Methodology and Application of Economic Evaluation
Techniques (EUROMET) project.
Design and setting: Members of the EUROMET group conducted interviews and s
urveys with politicians, regulators, hospital pharmacists and physicians in
The Netherlands. Three approaches of investigation could be adopted: (i) a
postal questionnaire survey, (ii) semi-structured interviews, and (iii) a
focus-group approach.
Main outcome measures and results: In the Netherlands, decision-makers gene
rally have a positive attitude towards economic evaluations. Nevertheless,
their actual use and knowledge of economic evaluations are still limited. H
ospital pharmacists and regulators are more objective than physicians and p
oliticians, who also base their judgements on other societal values. Hospit
al pharmacists and regulators have a greater knowledge of economic evaluati
ons, and they use them more often than the other groups. Most decision-make
rs do not want to base their decisions strictly on a cost-effectiveness ran
king alone. Our findings were similar to the findings in other European cou
ntries.
Conclusions: Decision-makers prefer to make their own broad comparisons of
advantages and disadvantages, and do not base their decisions solely on a s
ingle summary measure.