The efficiency frontier approach to economic evaluation: will it help German policy making?

摘要

Caro et al. (2010) aim to clarify a proposed method for technology appraisal in the German context, in which the 'efficiency frontier approach' to economic evaluation is central. This approach significantly deviates from conventional economic evaluations. An important reason for this appears to be the supposedly necessary avoidance of comparisons across diseases. However, the proposed methodology does not offer any real added value over conventional methodology. Not only because comparisons between diseases are as avoidable and possible under the efficiency frontier approach as under the conventional approach, but also because the efficiency frontier approach is difficult to operationalise and runs the risk of guiding policymakers to inferior decisions. In this brief comment, we highlight some of these issues.