Health economics – the century of knowledge and beyond

Since its establishment almost a century ago, health economics has evolved significantly, becoming a vital interdisciplinary field. Its legacy has developed a range of analytical methods fostering unprecedented increase of technical and allocative efficiency in medical care. We may track its early roots in the US academic circles, to be followed by British Commonwealth countries. Mostly after the end of Cold War, this knowledge was disseminated beyond North America and Western Europe, primarily towards East and South Asia and to a limited extent to the Global South. Alongside this process, the science has adjusted to the unique unmet financial sustainability needs of diverse health systems worldwide. The boldest advances happened in Western countries with strong health economics traditions. However, the epicentre of health economics publishing output is gradually changing. Chinese, Indian and ASEAN nations outputs, gain global prominence in well-funded and highly cited health economics research. Big Pharma industry also plays a pivotal role investing substantial resources in health economics research to support their own market access and pricing strategies. The purpose to secure public reimbursement of pharmaceuticals and medical devices had a strong boomerang effect on capacity building among health economists’ communities worldwide.