independence 157 alendronate, osteoporosis treatment 110-11 allocation concealment 186 allocative efficiency 9, 186 analytical perspective 193 author searching 98 balance sheets 176, 186 Bayes' rule 186 Bayesian methods 186-7 benefits 3 distribution 177 valuation 9 see also net benefit (NB) best evidence synthesis 35 bias 2, 187 clinical event baseline risk 108 data sources 111 decision models 15-16 judgement of risk 115 mis-specification 135, 192 random effects modelling 15-16 recall 121, 194 reporting 135-6, 137-8 risk assessment 15 GRADE system 120-1 selection 195 study designs 183 systematic reviews 136 see also publication bias bibliographic databases 89 bisphosphonates osteoporosis decision model 95-6 osteoporosis treatment 110-11 blinding 187 breast cancer screening 69 British Medical Journal (BMJ) checklist 15, 128 budgetary constraints 187 burden of disease approaches to research priority setting 148 Campbell DT 2 Campbell and Cochrane Economic Methods Group 30, 84 Campbell Collaboration 1, 3 equity 72, 73 guidance for economic evidence reviews 26 searching approach 85 Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technology in Health (CADTH) 10 Canadian Task Force on the Periodic Health Examination 114 case-mix 187 causality, interactive 168 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, guidelines 45 Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) 98-9 cervical cancer screening 69 checklists BMJ 15, 128 context 184 critical appraisal 184 economic evaluation 15, 25, 72-4, 184 generalisability of cost-effectiveness data 61-2 resources for research 82 economic evidence 128 equity 184 augmentation 72-4 systematic reviews 73-4 generalisability 61-2, 62 health utility estimation 73 internal validity 25 Philips 128 Quality Assessment in Decision-Analytic Models 128 Quality of Health Economics Studies 15, 128 systematic reviews 73-4 chemotherapy delivery costs for colon cancer 86, 87 children, social care 46-7 cholecystectomy surgery costs 59 systematic review 156 citation searching 97-8 clinical data 187 baseline 107 clinical effect sizes 107, 108 clinical events, baseline risks 108 clinical trials 149 clinical event incidence 108 prior registration 135-6, 137 clinicians, personal skills 59 Cochrane, Archie 1, 2 Cochrane Collaboration 1, 3 bias risk assessment 15 developing countries 64 EPOC Group 24-5 equity 72, 73 guidance for economic evidence reviews 26 searching approach 85 systematic reviews 24-5 CODECS database 82, 83 colon cancer, chemotherapy delivery costs 86, 87 Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines (US) 114-15 comparative effectiveness research (CER) studies 95-6 comparators 187 complex adaptive systems 167 complexity 162, 163, 174, 182 economic evaluation 163, 164-5 economic evidence 62-3 factors for change 169 health/health care 163-4 interactions 166-7 interventions 74-5 perspective 166-7, 183 synergism of interactions 167 conceptualisation, decision models 86-7 Consensus on Health Economic Criteria (CHEC) 128 consumers 3