Module overview
Society has limited resources available to meet unlimited wants with respect to achieving health. Pressures from demographic change, technological advances and changing lifestyle habits make it important to evaluate what health programmes can be provided and how they should be provided. The main focus of the module is on evaluation, both the methods and application to public health. The module will combine pragmatic evaluation of health services for public health practice with economic evaluation. Pragmatic evaluation of health services for public health practice will equip those completing the module with useful frameworks that are directly applicable to health contexts globally. The module will help you understand when and how to incorporate an economic evaluation into a broader evaluation and in what contexts it is useful to undertake an economic evaluation in its own right. The module will cover the theoretical basis underlying economic evaluation, the methodology needed to conduct an economic evaluation and the potential challenges to applying economic evaluation methods to public health. The module will help you critically appraise, produce and communicate evidence which can help to influence decision making in practice.