Health economics education in undergraduate medical degrees: an assessment of curricula content and student knowledge

Abstract

The teaching and learning environment and level of student knowledge of health economics was found to differ considerably across medical schools. The delivery of health economics teaching by specialised health economists would appear to be one possible strategy to improve student knowledge.

Towards integration of health economics into medical education and clinical practice in Saudi Arabia

“…However, this is not to say that teaching economic analysis ought to be less rigorous. On the contrary, it has been shown that medical schools with the most intensive health economics curricula perform marginally better and those students with Economics and clinical practice S57 health economists as instructors score higher than those taught by non-health economists (Gray & Lorgelly 2010).…”

Health economics education in undergraduate medical training: introducing the health economics education (HEe) website

“…In other countries such as the US and Germany, it has been proposed that providing high-value, cost-conscious care is to become a core competency for training doctors [6,7]. Whilst there appears to be universal agreement that health economics should form an integral part of medical undergraduate training, there remains considerable diversity across medical schools in the UK in terms of the content of the health economics education and in the way the teaching is delivered [2]. …”

“…As well as the consensus to have health economics training embedded into undergraduate medical curriculum, there is also an agreement that ideally this training should be provided by health economists [2]. However there is a shortage of health economics expertise within the UK capable of meeting all the training needs [8].…”

“…One compromise would be to make more use of online technology to aid teaching of health economics by both health economists and non-health economists. A recent study in the UK showed that health economics in medical schools was delivered by both health economists and public health professionals [2]. With the innovations in information technology there is now an increase in the use of web-based tools in education.…”

Building an international health economics teaching network

“…However, despite this increased use and need for health economics expertise, there has not been a matching increase in scholars with health economics training (Kaambwa & Frew, ). A substantial portion of the health economics courses around the world is taught outside of traditional economics departments, often by instructors with no health economics training and sometimes by instructors with very little formal economics training at all (Gray & Lorgelly, ; Sloan & Hsieh, , pxvii). In fact, many of these courses limit the definition of “health economics” to cost‐effectiveness analysis and do not include other important content such as utility theory, risk and insurance, the role of price in equilibrating markets, production functions, or externalities (see Platt & Kwasky, , for instance).…”