ECHOUTCOME

ECHOUTCOME is an interdisciplinary European research platform with the aim of assessing methodological properties of Healthcare Outcome and Cost-Benefit studies.

The ECHOUTCOME consortium is composed by eight partners from 4 countries including three academic international experts in Outcome Research from, the French Scientific Society in Health Economics, the European office of one Multinational BioPharma industry, two research organisations (SME) specialized in advanced statistics and modelling and one organization specialized in international research administration.

The general objective of this consortium is to study European health systems in order to assess decision making criteria in the frame of national needs and expectations across member states concerning healthcare outcomes and cost-benefit analyses Using both the descriptive and the experimental approaches, the ECHOUTCOME consortium will be able to investigate the relationship between quality of care with costs, efficiency and accessibility by indentifying and assessing existing approaches, but with the capability to develop new approaches for Decision Making purpose. Considering the fact that some Health agencies in Europe such as the National Institute of Clinical Excellence in the UK has published a guidance recommending one specific outcome (Quality Adjusted Life Years) and one specific Cost Benefit approach (Cost per Quality Adjusted Life Years) as a requirement for population access to innovative health technologies, it is urgent that the European Union considers the properties and consequences to use one reference case, before spreading or recommending any specific approach in other member states.

ECHOUTCOME will allow to make major advancements to improve the knowledge about Health Systems organizations and expectations, existing Health Outcomes and Cost-Benefit approaches and to develop new approaches for Health decision making.