Health Economics and Health Systems Research Unit
Learn more about the health economic research focus of the Institute of Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
You are here:
Coordinator: Thomas Reinhold, MSc, PhD
Health and health care were marked by a plethora and euphoria of the feasible in Germany a long time. Most actors in the health care system now accept the fact that these values have increasingly to subordinate to the financial feasibility.
This development led to the establishment of health economics as a recent research area in Germany.
A development that was long overdue as economists and demographists stated for a long time as the development of the German health care system dates back decades.
Health economic research is important, especially for a successful further development of the health care system and a reasonable allocation of resources.
For that reason the results from health economic research have to be integrated into the current progress of the health care system. These results include information about costs of illnesses, which are relevant for prioritising in the process of decision-making, the cost effects of therapies resp. The interaction of costs and effects, the so-called cost-effectiveness.
Recent health policy decisions suggest that costs and utilities of medical treatments will continue to play a significant role in the future.