Book Title: Introduction to Health Economics: What Every Health Professional Should Know
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Book Description:
This book provides a practical and accessible introduction to health economics, designed especially for students and healthcare professionals in Malaysia and beyond. It explains the principles of economic evaluation, decision-making in healthcare, and the link between economics and public policy. The book demonstrates how economic evidence can guide resource allocation, improve efficiency, and promote equity in health systems. Key topics include cost-effectiveness analysis, measuring quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), and applying economic evaluation tools in real-world decision-making. By bridging theory with practice, this book equips learners with the skills to analyse healthcare challenges critically and make informed decisions. It is an essential resource for students of health management, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to maximise health outcomes with limited resources.
Contents
Book Information
Book Description
The book begins by laying out the foundations of health economics, including opportunity cost, efficiency, and market failures in healthcare. It then guides readers through the methods of economic evaluation: cost-effectiveness, cost-utility, and cost-benefit analysis. It will guide how these tools are applied to real-world healthcare problems. Practical chapters explain how to design decision models, measure health outcomes such as QALYs, and interpret sensitivity analyses. Importantly, the book links economics directly to public policy, highlighting how evidence shapes decisions about vaccination programs, screening initiatives, and access to essential medicines.
Written in a clear and engaging style, this book is ideal for students, policymakers, and health professionals. It equips readers with the knowledge to analyse health interventions, evaluate trade-offs, and design policies that improve population health while ensuring efficient use of resources. By bridging economics and public health, this book provides not only academic insight but also practical guidance for anyone involved in managing health systems and shaping health policy.
License
Introduction to Health Economics: What Every Health Professional Should Know Copyright © 2025 by Abdul Rahman b. Ramdzan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
Subject
Health economics