PHARMACOECONOMICS AND THERAPEUTIC DRUG-MONITORING

The ever increasing rate of inflation and the reality that resources f or medical care are limited has led to significant changes in the reim bursement for health care services. These influences have convinced he alth care policy makers to closely evaluate innovative health services in terms of the benefits and costs. New pharmaceutical services must be economically justified in order to exist in the future. This is cru cial to the expansion and adoption of pharmaceutical services. Applica tion of economic evaluations is not new to the health care sector. Unt il recently, there were no incentive to transfer this interest into wi despread use. As health care expenditures have escalated over the past two decades, the number of applications of these techniques has incre ased. Especially significant are cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness e valuations of medical practice, pharmaceuticals, and other health care technologies. Pharmacoeconomic analysis is an important tool to assis t in the evaluation of new pharmaceutical services and technologies. E ssentially, economic analytical methods are used to weigh the positive and negative consequences of alternative courses of action. The usefu lness of pharmacoeconomic analyses is in resource allocation, with the purpose of achieving the highest return on investment or accomplishin g a given objective in the least costly manner. Unfortunately, very fe w pharmacy programs have been evaluated using pharmacoeconomic techniq ues. The purpose of this article is to present various methods to asse ss the economic value of therapeutic drug monitoring services in socie ty and for specific patient populations. Additionally, this article wi ll review the previous attempts and various issues surrounding the eco nomic justification of therapeutic drug monitoring.