Efficiency-based pharmacotherapy: a new approach for decision-making in medical practice

Abstract

For many years, efficacy and safety have been key parameters for decision-making in healthcare policy. However, the current situation is rather different as resources are scarce, so it is necessary to take efficiency into account when allocating limited resources. Efficiency-based pharmacotherapy is a new discipline that combines the principles of cost-effectiveness analysis with the criteria of evidence-based medicine to obtain the efficiency of therapeutic options to treat important diseases. A league table for each important pathology will be created by ranking all available drugs according to their incremental cost-effectiveness ratio. In this way, clinicians and other decision-makers would be able to advice the use and implantation of drug therapy options with better value for money in routine medical practice.

• cost-effectiveness analysis
• drug expenditure containment
• drug therapy prioritizing
• efficiency-based pharmacotherapy
• evidence-based medicine
• league tables