Economic surveillance for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Alberta / : Economic surveillance for COPD in Alberta

Reproduction, redistribution, or modification of the information for any purposes is prohibited without the express written permission of the Institute of Health Economics Institute of Health Economics, 2016. [...] Economic surveillance for COPD in Alberta ii Abbreviations All abbreviations that have been used in this report are listed here unless the abbreviation is well known, has been used only once, or has been used only in tables or appendices, in which case the abbreviation is defined in the figure legend or in the notes at the end of the table. [...] According to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC)’s measure of the Economic Benefits of Illness in Canada (EBIC), COPD is a very expensive disease, and is the most costly in terms of hospitalization. [...] In this paper, we present the results of an economic surveillance analysis on the components of the Alberta healthcare system that are devoted to COPD prevention and treatment. [...] Economic surveillance for COPD in Alberta 3 2.5 Defining care gaps in the market for COPD care services In the context of a market for COPD services, a “gap” is defined as the difference between the amount of care demanded or needed by services users and the amount of care services that are available, as defined by budgetary allocations.