The WHO Regional Office for Europe has published on the Internet the book Learning to live with health economics, containing 25 health economics study modules, most of which are 15–20 pages long. The book has been prepared to assist the following groups of people to become more familiar with the importance of health economics in health care:
The highest level of health care decision-making comprises ministers of health and their most senior officials. These are the people who establish appropriate parameters for decision-making by practitioners and health care administrators, manage intersectoral relationships and obtain adequate resources for the health sector. They are, however, extremely busy and are most unlikely to work systematically through the full book.
Given the importance of this group and the benefit they could derive from familiarity with health economics concepts, tools and ways of thinking, WHO has produced this abridged version of the book for their use. Entitled Health economics as a tool for leaders,2 it is organized in two parts:
