The Health Care Efficiency Research programme actively promotes research on the recognition, assessment and implementation of cost-effective interventions and fosters generalisation of knowledge. It is a structural programme.
 
The Health Care Efficiency Research programme provides a budget for investigating solutions for health care policy problems. The emphasis is on (cost-)effectiveness studies and implementation research. The programme covers a particularly broad area. Its framework encompasses diagnostics, therapy (cure) and care, and organisations in all medical and paramedical disciplines focusing on services covered by health insurance. The patient perspective is important, because the goal is ultimately to improve patients’ health and quality of life at an acceptable cost.

Early Evaluation of Medical Innovation

This sub-programme focuses on research on potentially relevant new innovations in health care. The aim is to establish the effectiveness of the innovations and show their potential efficiency. The development of new interventions is not a subject of study in this sub-programme.

Effects and Costs

This sub-programme is the centrepiece of the Health Care Efficiency Research programme. Efficiency research is mainly about effects and costs. Research of this type is useful only if information on the efficacy of interventions or applicability of certain forms of organisation is available.

Implementation

Once the cost-effectiveness of interventions (and their organisational implications) is known, additional knowledge may be needed to ensure implementation. This sub-programme focuses on closing the remaining knowledge gaps to foster the use of cost-effective interventions. The aim is not only to examine how cost-effective interventions can be incorporated in health care practice but also to gather generally applicable knowledge on the process of innovation and implementation in health care.