ECONOMIC-EVALUATION OF MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES - FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE- THE GERMAN PERSPECTIVE

This paper briefly describes the German health care system and the rol e of economic studies in medical technologies and drugs in a decentral ized health care system like Germany's. It also provides a number of e xamples of studies which have been conducted recently in Germany and s hows the variation of sponsors, study types, study perspectives and ob jectives of those studies. It concludes with an outlook on the future role of pharmaco-economic studies in Germany and the recently publishe d German recommendations for conducting those studies. (C) 1997 Elsevi er Science Ltd.