Health Economics and Entrepreneurship - Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering core concepts from Lectures 1–3 in health economics, entrepreneurship, quality of life, DALYs, and related topics.

Economics

The study of how limited resources and unlimited wants require choosing among wants; in health, it analyzes allocation, production, efficiency, value, and behavior to improve equity, accessibility, and affordability.

Health economics

The study of how resources are allocated within the health care system, focusing on production, efficiency, value, and behavior; an applied field using economic theory to understand decision-making in health care and to improve equity, accessibility, and affordability.

Stakeholders in health care spending

Health care providers, patients, insurance companies, government agencies, corporations, and public organizations who influence how health care resources are spent.

Opportunity cost

The potential benefits forgone when resources are used for one purpose instead of another; example: hospital resources diverted to COVID-19 mitigation at the expense of other services.

Marginal analysis

Evaluating the additional benefits and costs of providing one more unit of a health care service or intervention; important for policy, budgeting, and pricing decisions.

Marginal cost

The additional expense incurred by providing one more unit of a service or intervention.

Marginal benefit

The added health improvement or other positive outcome resulting from one more unit of a service.

Diminishing marginal returns

The phenomenon where initial units of a health service produce large health gains, but subsequent units yield progressively smaller gains.

Efficiency

Maximizing output or welfare given available resources; can be S conceptualized as allocative or technical efficiency in health.

Allocative efficiency

Optimal allocation of resources to maximize overall societal well-being.

Technical efficiency

Producing health care services at the lowest possible cost without sacrificing quality or effectiveness.

Production Possibilities Frontier (PPF)

A curve showing the trade-offs in a society between healthcare and other goods; illustrates maximum feasible combinations given limited resources and highlights opportunity costs and diminishing returns.

Need

Clinical judgment about what a person requires to be healthy.

Demand

People’s desire for healthcare in order to alleviate suffering; influenced by affordability and willingness to pay.

Supply

Healthcare resources available to the people.

Iron Triangle

A framework where improving one element (cost, quality, or access) may worsen the others; trade-offs exist between these three goals.

Cost

Expenditures in health care; reductions in cost contribute to higher and earlier return on investment.

Quality

Improvements in health care quality that contribute to safer, timely, efficient, and patient-centered care, reducing unnecessary care and improving ROI.

Access

Gains in access that may, in the short term, lower or delay return on investment due to entrance and expansion effects.

Health Entrepreneurship

Creating innovative, scalable solutions for health problems; focuses on high-impact models and carries higher risk-taking and innovation.

Digital Health

Innovations such as telemedicine, mobile apps, and AI diagnostics that leverage digital tools to improve health care.

Medical Devices and Diagnostics

Point-of-care testing and wearables; key areas for innovation in health.

Healthcare Services

Clinics, care coordination, and remote monitoring—areas where new health models can be developed.

Biotech & Pharmaceuticals

Development of new therapies and drug delivery methods as innovation areas in health.

Regulatory Hurdles

Legal and regulatory barriers that vary by country or region and can impede health innovations.

Clinical validation

Evidence-based validation of outcomes to prove the effectiveness and safety of health technologies or interventions.

Funding

Financial resources to support development, often requiring patient capital due to long development cycles.

Data and privacy

Secure and ethical management of health data to protect patient confidentiality.

Integration of health economics and entrepreneurship

Economics informs pricing, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability, while entrepreneurship provides agile problem-solving to systemic issues; together they align innovation with measurable health impact.

Health

A state described by the WHO as complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease.

Quality of life (QoL)

An individual’s overall satisfaction with life, influenced by culture, values, goals, expectations, and concerns; a difficult-to-define but central concept.

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL)

How well a person functions in daily life and perceived wellbeing across physical, mental, and social health domains, influenced by health status.

Functioning

Ability to carry out predefined activities as part of overall functioning.

Well-being

Subjective feelings of happiness or life satisfaction and overall welfare.

EQ-5D-3L / EQ-5D-5L

Generic HRQoL questionnaires with 5 domains and 3 or 5 levels; health states are converted to a value between 0 and 1.

Burden of disease

The overall impact of diseases on a population, encompassing morbidity and mortality and informing policy and planning.

Disability-adjusted life year (DALY)

A standardized measure of disease burden; 1 DALY equals 1 healthy life year lost and is the sum of YLD and YLL.

YLD (Years Lived with Disability)

Incidents × duration × disability weight; years lived with disability.

YLL (Years of Life Lost)

Deaths × residual life expectancy; years of life lost due to premature death.

Disability weight

A scale from 0 to 1 representing the severity of a health condition's impact on quality of life.

GDP per capita

Gross domestic product per person; used to estimate economic loss from DALYs.

Limitations of DALYs

Subjective, culturally biased, context-specific, and ethical concerns; potential lack of transparency, consensus, and data limitations.