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Module

ONC8028 : Practical Health Economics for Cancer (E-learning)

  • Offered for Year: 2024/25
  • Module Leader(s): Mr Tomos Robinson
  • Lecturer: Dr Gurdeep Sagoo
  • Owning School: Pharmacy
  • Teaching Location: Off Campus
Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Semester 2 Credit Value: 20
ECTS Credits: 10.0
European Credit Transfer System

Aims

The aims of this module are:

To introduce students to economic principles and applied tools in healthcare evaluation with a focus on oncology and palliative care.

Outline Of Syllabus

This module consists of ten topics. It will start with an introduction to economic principles and define key terms such as scarcity, opportunity cost, and priority setting. Then, topics related to the economics of health care markets such as demand and supply of medicines, market failure, and equity will be covered. The middle of the module will focus on economic evaluation within a Health Technology Assessment (HTA) framework. This will include epidemiology and evidence synthesis techniques. The main focus will be on economic evaluation including emphasis on data requirements and practically aspects of conducting cost-effective analysis, cost-utility analysis and cost-benefit analysis Following on from this we will look at Market Access including a focus on how the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in England evaluate oncology drugs and their patient access schemes. We aim to cover the contemporary issues related to NICE's approach to evaluation. The literature for the economic case for palliative care will also be outlined. Finally, the modules finishes with a discussion of affordability, budget impact, and what next for cancer medicines in the midst/aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic.

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities
Category Activity Number Length Student Hours Comment
Guided Independent StudyAssessment preparation and completion310:0030:00Independent assessment preparation
Guided Independent StudyDirected research and reading106:0060:00Online content: each topic will have hyperlinks to access information, with essential key reading
Guided Independent StudyReflective learning activity103:0030:00Personal reflection on topics relevant from the students profession
Guided Independent StudyStudent-led group activity25:0010:002 activities where students contribute to answer the question posed
Guided Independent StudyIndependent study105:0050:00Supplemental reading - this will give more depth to the core materials
Guided Independent StudyOnline Discussion102:0020:00Via discussion board - engage in discussion on interactive activities
Total200:00
Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Each week of the module will cover a different topic area (ten in total). Each topic area will have one or two key study documents to read, interactive lecture notes and activities. Student's responses to the activities will be posted on the discussion board on Canvas (used for online discussion) to foster dialogue between students and the instructors. The instructors will monitor and comment on all student responses to the activities to help with the consolidation of knowledge and understanding of the learning outcomes.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessment
Description Semester When Set Percentage Comment
Essay2M50Maximum 2,000 words
Oral Examination2M50Recorded powerpoint presentation. Max 15 slides, max 15 minute presentation.
Formative Assessments

Formative Assessment is an assessment which develops your skills in being assessed, allows for you to receive feedback, and prepares you for being assessed. However, it does not count to your final mark.

Description Semester When Set Comment
Written exercise2MShort essay (500 words)
Oral Presentation2M5 minutes and 2 slide maximum to identify summative assessment topic and familiarise with the recording software
Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The assessment is intended to cover the breadth of the course and takes the form of a written exercise of a short essay that is a maximum of 2000 in length which will cover the basics of health economics. The rationale for this form of assessment is to evaluate the understanding of key economic concepts such as opportunity cost, scarcity and equity. Furthermore, the practical methodological approaches to economic evaluation and market access will be covered as applied to a real-world issue related to the delivery of oncology and palliative care. The second assessment will be an oral presentation covering the economic angle to a cancer care issue. The presentation allows assessment of student’s ability to develop on the issue, critically analyse the pertinent literature and present a focused critiqued piece of work.

There will be two formative assessment exercises:

One will be written on the economics of the health care market. The first formative assessment will be a short essay (~500 words). Responses to the formative assessment exercise should be posted on each individual student’s journal and all students will receive personalised feedback on their answers to help them prepare for the assignment of the short essay.

The second formative assessment will be related to market access and will be a five-minute presentation with a maximum of three slides to familiarize the students with the presentation software (Pantopto/Zoom/Powerpoint) and presenting online. Students will also receive personalized feedback for this assessment,

Should a student fail the assessment they will have to complete a resit assessment.

Reading Lists

Timetable