One of the 3 E’s from the hugely influential monograph: Cochrane, A. L. (1972). Effectiveness and efficiency. Random reflections on health services. Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust.
Details #
In Cochrane’s terms the efficiency of an intervention was last step to establish after you had shown efficacy and effectiveness (q.v.!) Efficiency was whether it was cost effective to deliver the intervention. To some extent this is a very different issue in publicly funded healthcare from private, for profit, healthcare: in the latter efficiency is just about whether “the market” will pay what it costs to deliver the intervention plus a profit margin; for the former this is crucial as you want to deliver the interventions that give the greatest benefit for the general population.
Since “Random reflections” and 1972 this has exploded into the enormous arena of health economics, DALYs, QALYs, cost offset and, in the UK, NICE.
Try also #
- DALYs: Disability Adjusted Life Years
- Cost offset
- The 3 E’s
- Efficacy
- Effectiveness
- Health economics
- NICE
- Practice Based Evidence
- QALYs
Chapters #
Not covered specifically in the OMbook but the tension between reductionist ideas of efficiency evaluation and more realistic use of change measurement are the backboone of the book in many ways.
Online resources #
None likely from me.
Dates #
First created 2.iv.25.
