Identification of Data Sources Appropriate for Use in Conducting Cost AnalysisRequired for the Development of Clinical Practice and Guidelines. Final Report

摘要

The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) is developing andreleasing clinical practice guidelines in various areas of medicine. This report develops a method to estimate these guidelines' potential effects on the costs of medical care. The report: (1) identifies existing databases which may be useful; (2) evaluates their utility; (3) develops a cost measurement methodology for evaluating the guidelines using existing databases; and (4) describes how this methodology could be used for selected guidelines. Databases are evaluated with regard to the: (1) availability of cost data; (2) representativeness of the population; (3) comprehensiveness of services; (4) data quality; and (5) accessibility for research. The report finds that no one database can be used to estimate the costs of implementing clinical guidelines. However, the report develops a method to do so using existing databases. This methodology is applied to the guidelines for the treatment of pressure ulcers and sickle cell disease as an illustration of the method and the use of data sources.