Question

Program planners and evaluators need a basic understanding of economic evaluation. In addition, they may be faced with certain ethical issues. Interview your local healthcare professionals and evaluators. Based on your interactions, provide responses to the following:

Analyze and select two types of economic evaluations.

Compare the two evaluations, in relation to the factors that may affect the decision to conduct each of the economic evaluations.

Describe at least two potential ethical and social issues related to program implementation.

Explain the approach(s) you might take to address these ethical issues.

Answer 1

1. The two types of economic evaluations are : benefit -cost analysis and cost effectiveness analysis . Benefit - cost analysis is the evaluation of the cost of the program in comparison to the benefits from the program . cost effectiveness analysis is the evaluation of costs of different actions in the program to their outcomes.

2.

benefit -cost analysis	cost effectiveness analysis
Commonly used in planning at the executive level for government programs	used to select the most effective course of action.
includes all cost (planning, developing, implementing and executing)	used when a fixed value cannot be placed on the outcome. example ; when deciding when a surgery is beneficial or an interventional procedure is beneficial.
can be used in the evaluation of public programs with different outcomes	cannot compare between different outcomes.

3. ethical challenges and approaches to address them :

1. non maleficience and beneficience : A program is aimed at providing colorectal cancer screening in a community . it was decided that all people who are above teh age of 65 would receive an SMS pop up for the cancer screening. The outcome is that there were very f ew under the age of 65 who turn up for the screening. thus posing teh ethical dilemma of non maleficience and benificience.

APPROACH : involve the community and the society as a whole when developing strategies and courses of action. consult with the key stakeholders in the community and the agencies and institutions to develop appropriate actions which will be be beneficial to the beneficiaries.

2. Autonomy : People must be given the autonomy to select form a variety of potions. Eg: in colorectal cancer screening, there are choices of fecal analysis and colonoscopy. The beneficiary must be able to choose.

APPROACH: Explore all available options during the development of the program.All interventions must be aligned to beneficiary preferences and must take into consideration cultural factors.

social challenges :

1. respect for cultural diversity : In every community there are people with varied cultures and traditions and belief system.

APPROACH: when planning and developing programs, it is important to incorporate the local customs and traditions and cultural practices into the program to keep the program all inclusive.

2. social justice : the benefits of the program must be made available to all the groups of people. Eg. Influenza vaccination drive. it must be accessible to all underprevileged, immigrants etc.

APPROACH: during the development of the program, due consideration must be given to people belonging to all age groups and ethnic backgrounds. These include the children, elderly, disadvantaged groups, immigrants, aborIginal peoples.