The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic illustrates the importance of public health to the wider economy, but the so-called inter-sectoral consequences of healthcare interventions are often not considered in economic evaluations. “The EU published a strategy document several years ago which states that health is not just a value in itself, but is also very important for economic growth and prosperity,” she explains. Currently, there are not really any tools available to compare the results of economic evaluations conducted in different countries, while Professor Simon is also considering the wider importance of health in the project. This is an issue Professor Simon and her colleagues from six European countries in the project are working to address by establishing a standardised approach to assessing the impact of healthcare interventions in the EU. “We need this cost-effectiveness information, derived from economic evaluations, in order to provide more efficient care across healthcare systems and achieve the best value care possible,” she continues. Healthcare costs currently account for about 10 percent of national income across EU countries, the second highest government spending category after social protection, which Professor Simon says is the result of an enormous increase in demand for care, along with the availability and cost of new technologies. “This project is addressing the issue of increasing healthcare costs,” says Judit Simon, Professor of Health Economics at the Medical University of Vienna, the coordinator of the project. With governments and healthcare organisations looking to control costs while at the same time providing highquality care, it’s important to rigorously assess the costs and effects of different interventions, a topic at the heart of the PECUNIA project. The outlook is set to further worsen, with the COVID-19 pandemic expected to have longterm consequences on mental health amongst the general public. Many European countries spendĪ significant proportion of national income on healthcare, and the financial burden is set to increase further in future, with the cost of mental healthcare likely to lead to significant strain on healthcare organisations. Researchers in the PECUNIA project are developing new, more systematic, harmonised and comparable methods of assessing healthcare interventions, which could in future lead to more optimised, cost-effective care, as Professor Judit Simon explains. Healthcare costs are rising across the EU, and the burden is likely to intensify in future with the cost of caring for people with mental health diseases set to increase. BEACON Assessing the costs and outcomes of healthcare
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