ABSTRACT
Interest in health outcome measurement has grown steadily over the last few years. Although health economists are considered to be the main protagonists of work in this field, the impetus behind the original development of such concepts as the QALY came more from two other groups-the members of the medical profession and of health service management. Possibly by virtue of being a third party, health economists have been able to identify common goals of these independent and often opposing groups, and present these in a framework combining social, medical, and economic concepts. Despite common aspirations however, the two groups have very different philosophies on the aims of medical practice, inevitable given their different professional backgrounds.
