Conclusions: measurement and valuation of health

This book addresses the main questions surrounding the measurement and valuation of health. It shows that there are many different answers to to questions regarding how to describe health, valuation methods, whose values, what instruments to use, how to aggregate QALYs, and how to use the health state utility values in economic evaluation. This chapter examines the implications of this diversity for policy making, the use of a reference case, and briefly reviews the guidelines used by major policy makers (e.g. NICE) around the world. We cannot predict how the field is likely to develop over the next decade, but we are sure it will lose none of its intellectual challenge and controversy.