Abstract
Background: Care pathways have been proposed as a way of providing guidance on best evidence care and reducing unnecessary variation by articulating the processes that should be implemented for patients with a particular condition or disease. Given the variety of types of economic evaluation techniques, guidance is needed about the most appropriate ways of conducting economic evaluations of care pathways.
Approach: A scoping review on the evaluation of care pathways to: i) determine the types of economic evaluation techniques that have been used; ii) explore the reported benefits and limitations of different types of economic analyses; iii) provide recommendation on the optimal method of economic analyses.
An Electronic search of Medline, CINAHL, EMBASE and PsycINFO databases undertaken between January 2000 and October 2024. For the purposes of this review, a care pathway was defined as a complex intervention to guide shared decision making among patients and providers, and to organise care processes for patients. They delineate goals of care, evidence-based practice, sequencing of activities, communication and coordination among the care team, and resources that may be required.
The search strategy was developed in consultation with a medical librarian and was performed using a combination of subject headings and text search terms related to care pathways (e.g. care pathway, health pathway), and economic evaluation (e.g. cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, economic evaluation).
Results: Analysis is underway. Results will be presented at the Conference. This will include a narrative synthesis of findings, including the benefits and limitations identified in the literature of each evaluation type.
Implications: Given the financial restraints on health systems globally, there is a need to understanding how the costs and benefits of care pathways can be measured and understood. Economic evaluations provide a means to do this, however, given the variety of approaches available, there is need for guidance on best practice. This review will address this need.