'Health services cannot be pre-judged'

The uniqueness of health services is that it is difficult to judge. Unlike many products in the market which can be evaluated before purchase, health services cannot be assessed beforehand. Not only pre-purchase evaluation but also post-purchase evaluation is difficult.

In other words, it is difficult to evaluate the quality of the intervention (treatment) provided by a hospital, said Dr Gregory Reardon, who is an associate professor of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy University of Findlay (UF), Ohio.

He was delivering the keynote address at the International Conference of Health Economics and Outcomes Research at KMC, Manipal, recently. The conference was jointly organised by department of Public Health, department of Commerce and department of Pharmacy Management (MCOPs).

As many as 110 delegates from India and abroad took part in the conference and 32 posters in health economics were displayed at the venue.

Economic evaluation

Dr Gregory spoke on economic evaluation in healthcare decision making: challenges and opportunities. He gave an overview of various methodologies employed for economic valuation of health care.

Manipal University vice chancellor Dr H Vinod Bhat raised issues related to health economics and stressed on investigating the need for treating health economics as an exclusive discipline because that would automatically provide the right direction in the area of health economics.

He exhorted the audience to dwell on the issue of economic discrimination in pricing practiced by hospital administrations and apply themselves for either justifying/rationalising these practices.

Dr M Chandra Sekar, professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Practice, College of Pharmacy, University of Findlay, spoke on ‘Cost and Benefit of Appropriate Proton Pump Inhibitor Use.’