A method for assessing the cost-effectiveness and the break-even point of clinical practice guidelines

Assessing the costs and benefits of developing a clinical practice guidelin e is important because investments in guidelines compete with investments i n other clinical programs. Despite the considerable number of guidelines in many industrialized countries, little is known about their costs and cost- effectiveness. The authors have developed specific measures to determine th e cost-effectiveness of guidelines, using a German evidence-based guideline on obesity for the diagnosis and treatment of obese patients as a model. T he measures are: the number of people needed to cure, the number of people needed to prevent from developing the disease in question, and the number o f people to treat in order to break even.