Members of the Center have advanced training and expertise in medical decision-making and health economics. The Center offers services to conduct cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-minimization analysis, cost-utility analysis, cost-benefit analysis, and budget impact modeling across any field of health care. Since each new health economic problem carries a unique set of considerations, members of the Center work with investigators to determine which set of methods is best suited to the problem at hand. Whereas one problem might best be served with a cost-minimization analysis, another might warrant a budget impact model. In this regard, the Center's model is to avoid the "one size fits all" approach of performing cost-effectiveness analysis alone for all projects, and instead to consider the goals of individual projects and tailor an approach that fits the stated objectives of the research at hand.

Recent applications of health economic analyses include appropriate diagnostic decision-making in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), dyspepsia, chronic liver disease, Hepatitis B and C therapy, colon cancer, and gastrointestinal tract hemorrhage. In addition, the Center has published several decision analyses in pharmacoeconomics, including studies evaluating the cost-effectiveness of proton pump inhibitors in acid-related gastrointestinal disorders, nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs in chronic arthritis, beta-blockers in cirrhosis, and antiviral therapies in both Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C. Health economic analyses have appeared in several high-impact medical journals, including American Journal of Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, Archives of Internal Medicine, American Journal of Gastroenterology, Gastroenterology, and Hepatology. The group has also recently published a systematic review and critical appraisal of all heath economic analyses in digestive diseases. [PDF Download - Spiegel et al. Gastrotenterology 2004]