C ost-effectiveness analysis is one of the fastest-growing fi elds in health research, but it has lacked an instruction manual until now. Other books address the theoretical  aspects of cost-effectiveness analysis, but  Cost-Effectiveness Analyses in Health: A Practical Approach  teaches students how to perform cost-effectiveness r esearch. The art of costeffectiveness analysis is explored using real-world examples. In this book, you will learn how to fi nd and evaluate data, build a simple d ecision analysis model, test the model, and present the results in a research paper. The only skills you will need to complete this book are basic math skills, though learning cost-effectiveness analysis will be easier for you if you have some spreadsheet skills and a basic knowledge of  epidemiology and biostatistics.    Cost-Effectiveness Analyses in Health  uses teaching techniques akin to the natural learning or immersion approach to language in which students learn a new language by speaking rather than studying grammar. In this book, problems are  anticipated and solved in context, making the theory easy to appreciate and learn. The book can also be read without actually doing the examples, allowing for the study of theory without a practical component.   Public health students and professionals familiar with basic epidemiology and biostatistics research can skip the relevant supplemental chapters (Chapters Eleven and Twelve). However, this book also provides inexperienced students with a basic set of  epidemiological and biostatistical tools relating to cost-effectiveness analysis.   Public health students, medical students, health economists, biomedical  researchers, physicians, policymakers, and health managers should all fi nd this book informative and fun. Since cost-effectiveness analysis is being used to evaluate m edical  interventions worldwide, the book uses approaches and examples that are applicable to both  industrialized and developing countries. It teaches students how to evaluate  interventions specifi c to infectious disease (a common type of analysis in developing countries) as well as chronic disease (a common type of analysis in developed  countries). It also a ddresses issues specifi c to evaluating the cost-effectiveness of  public health programs as well as problems specifi c to clinical medicine.