A review of cost-effectiveness, cost-containment and economics curricula in graduate medical education

Objective  Numerous studies performed over the last 30 years suggest that doctors have poor knowledge of the costs of medical care. In most graduate medical education programmes, trainees do not receive formal training in cost‐effective medical practice. Methods  Comprehensive literature search of e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of evaluation in clinical practice 2010-12, Vol.16 (6), p.1055-1062
Main Authors: Varkey, Prathibha, Murad, Mohammad H., Braun, Chad, Grall, Kristi J.H., Saoji, Vivek
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cost Control
Cost-Benefit Analysis
cost-containment
cost-effectiveness
Curriculum
Economics, Medical
Education, Medical, Graduate
graduate medical education
health economics
Humans
Review Literature as Topic
systems-based practice
United States
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Summary:Objective  Numerous studies performed over the last 30 years suggest that doctors have poor knowledge of the costs of medical care. In most graduate medical education programmes, trainees do not receive formal training in cost‐effective medical practice. Methods  Comprehensive literature search of electronic bibliographic databases for articles that describe health economics, cost‐containment and cost‐effectiveness curricula in graduate medical education. Critical appraisal of the literature and qualitative description is presented. Heterogeneity of curricula precluded quantitative summary of data. Results  We identified 40 articles that met the inclusion criteria for this review. Internal medicine residents were the targeted learners in 27 studies (68%); Family Medicine and Surgery residents were each targeted in five studies (13%); Rehabilitation, Paediatrics and Emergency Medicine residents were each targeted in one study. In general, the methodological quality of the included studies was poor to moderate and mostly targeted knowledge of health economics or cost‐containment as opposed to targeting cost‐effectiveness. In terms of describing the standard curricular components, studies sufficiently described the different educational strategies (e.g. didactics, interactive, experiential, self‐directed) and the component of learner assessment, but lacked the description of other elements such as needs assessment and curriculum evaluation. Conclusion  Cost‐effectiveness curricula in graduate medical education are lacking and clearly needed.
ISSN:1356-1294
1365-2753
DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2753.2009.01249.x