A clinician's perspective on pharmacoeconomics and rheumatology.

This paper provides a brief introduction into pharmacoeconomics and its role in rheumatology from the perspective of a clinician, and is regarded as providing complementary simplified explanations for rheumatologists, which are used in a in much greater sophistication and complexity in other articles in this supplement. Different definitions of pharmacoeconomics are discussed. In the major part of the article, typical pharmacoeconomic methods are explained and illustrated using examples derived from rheumatology: cost, cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-utility analysis, decision tree analysis, and Markov models. These methods are discussed in terms of strengths and weaknesses and their implications for medical practice.