The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland‘s Dr Jonathan Briody contributed an editor-invited piece on colorectal cancer for the ‘oncology focus’ issue of Hospital Professional News this September (2022): “Understanding the Health Economics of Colorectal Cancer: A COLOSSAL undertaking”. Dr Briody is a health economist conducting an economic evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of precision medicine for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) in the COLOSSUS project coordinated at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences. The article described the work currently ongoing in COLOSSUS to improve outcomes in metastatic colorectal cancer patients, focusing on his role in the project. Particularly, Dr Briody emphasised that while placing a financial value on patient health is contentious, decision makers must prioritise amongst competing demands for healthcare resources. He demonstrated that health economics provides a fair and explicit framework to maximise patient benefit from finite budgets and thus maximise patient health and wellbeing in the healthcare system. This article appears on pages 38-40 below:
