NHS EED

NHS EED (NHS Economic Evaluation Database) focuses primarily on the economic evaluation of health care interventions and aims to help decision makers interpret an increasingly complex and technical literature.

Economic evaluations are studies in which a comparison of two or more interventions or care alternatives is undertaken and in which both the costs and outcomes of the alternatives are examined. This includes cost-benefit analyses, cost-utility analyses, and cost-effectiveness analyses.

Each week extensive literature searches are undertaken to identify relevant economic evaluations. Full details of the search strategies are available on request (crd-info@york.ac.uk).

The citations are assessed by experienced health economists and classified by study design. As soon as a study is identified as meeting the inclusion criteria, brief details are published on the database and the study is prioritised for abstract writing.

Studies conducted in, or that are relevant to the UK health care system are considered priorities and fast tracked. This priority process ensures that evidence of most relevance to the NHS is made available in the form of a critical abstract as quickly as possible. As with DARE, database users can request that we fast track the writing of critical abstracts for individual studies (priority is given to the UK NHS).

Each abstract starts with a non technical summary of the topic, conclusions and reliability of the study.  A brief description of the effectiveness information on which the economic evidence is based and details of the key components of the economic evaluation, are also included. A critical commentary summarises the overall reliability and generalisability of the study, and presents any practical implications for the NHS.

Critical abstracts are written and independently checked by health economists with in-depth knowledge and experience of economic evaluation methods. They are then checked and proof read by a technical editor to ensure consistency and readability.

On final completion of an abstract, a copy is sent to the original authors for information. Authors are invited to reply with corrections to factual errors, further information and other research. Where applicable this information is added to the abstract.