ABSTRACT
Health care is big business, although many health-care professionals deny this and some resent the trend towards the assessment of health care as another commodity in the market place. Economic analysis in health and medical care is a relatively new approach to the business of decision-making and the allocation of resources. The financing of health and medical care has become an increasingly important issue in all countries, and one which will continue to confront governments and health-care planners in the Asia-Pacific region. The 'outcomes movement' concerns the measurement of the outcomes of care rather than reliance on structural measures of the health-care system. One area in which health-care costs can be contained, and resources used more effectively, is in routine medical practice. Cost identification makes no demands on the physician to demonstrate that what is being done is effective in terms of its final outcome; it simply requires that costs are minimized.
