Pharmacy Dean George MacKinnon publishes book on tools to assess costs and outcomes of medications

A timely new book that explores reasons and methods for measuring costs, benefits and outcomes of competing medications has been published by George MacKinnon III, founding dean of Roosevelt University’s College of Pharmacy. The book, Understanding Health Outcomes and Pharmacoeconomics, features insights and research articles by 17 leading experts in the pharmacy field.

“One of the main issues that today’s health professionals face is how to determine which medication, out of many that are available, makes the most sense from a cost standpoint, while offering the very best chance at treatment and a positive outcome for the patient,” said MacKinnon. “This book provides the assessment tools that health professionals need to make practical decisions, and is timely given the attention to comparative effectiveness studies where head to head comparisons of products will become more common.”

Published by Jones & Bartlett Learning, Understanding Health Outcomes and Pharmacoeconomics is a primer on assessing patient-related health status, including associated health outcomes and the analyses that are used to determine cost-effectiveness in evaluating pharmacotherapeutic interventions to improve health.

While the book is intended primarily for classroom settings, it is also meant to assist pharmacists, allied healthcare workers, doctors, educators, public health care workers and others in answering critical and timely questions like those posed by MacKinnon in the book’s introduction: “What is the best medication for a patient? What is the cheapest medication for the patient’s condition? What is this medication going to cost the insurer? What amount of money will this medication/intervention save the health plan or hospital? What benefit is achieved or risks are incurred in providing this medication over another option? What is the best medication/intervention for a similar group of patients? Which medication should be added to the formularly, and which ones should be taken off? How should limited resources be used to obtain the optimal value (for patients, the health plan, providers, hospitals, and society)?”

While acknowledging there are no easy answers to the many questions health professionals face in making decisions about appropriate prescriptions, MacKinnon, who edited the book, notes in the introduction: Given the finite resources and escalating costs associated with health care today, it is imperative that health care practitioners (present and future) understand the basis for decisions that impact the use of health care interventions, including diagnostics and pharmaceuticals.” MacKinnon spent two years on the project, assembling a team of 17 national and international experts who have contributed the book’s 14 chapters.
 
For more information, contact George MacKinnon at gmackinnon@roosevelt.edu