Economic evaluation with clinical trials in neonatology

With the current economic climate, the budget crisis within the health-care system, and the rapid development of health-care technologies in the field of neonatology, it is essential for decision makers at every level to understand how to interpret published economic evaluations to help guide both practice and budget decisions. The objective of this article is to provide a stepwise approach to interpreting economic evaluations conducted alongside randomized, controlled trials (RCTs). The emphasis in assessing the validity of such an analysis is to ensure that the authors are transparent in their approach with respect to factors such as the intervention and comparator, time horizon, study perspective, sources for costs and effects, appropriate combining of costs and effects into a single metric, and assessment of uncertainty and time preference.