The 2010 Annual Institute of Clinical Research (ICR) Conference closed with a presentation on health economics, presented by Profs Karl Claxton and Richard Lilford.
The conference took place at the Hilton Metropole Hotel in London on 19-20 April and featured a line-up of 34 clinical research speakers from the private and public healthcare sector, government bodies and academia presenting on 'Science, Society and Economics: Shaping the Future of Clinical Research'.
During the presentation, Claxton highlighted how 'NHS costs aren't money - they're someone else's health opportunity' and argued against paying an additional premium for innovation and healthcare beyond the direct benefit it brings.
Claxton, who leads the centre for health economics and department of economics at the University of York, said: 'It is bad for the NHS and for taxpayers, but also ultimately bad for industry in stifling the prospect for further innovation in the future.'
He went on to emphasise that many areas of inefficient healthcare spending are outside the scope of NICE appraisals and even took NICE to task for enabling industry to capture the entire incremental value of an innovation.
The programme also included a variety of sessions on topics ranging from managing remote teams, research and development strategy, patient recruitment and regulatory updates from NRES and the ABPI.
Lilford, director of the Birmingham Clinical Research Academy and professor of clinical epidemiology, explained that there is real pain in rationing, but that it is inevitable without infinite resources.
'The purpose of "economics" in health economics is to define the salient philosophical and ethical issues, which is where the real thinking still has to be done.
'I am committed to trying to introduce rationality into the rationing process and do believe that NICE has gone some way to doing this,' he said.
