Bridging Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics for Better Healthcare Outcomes

Dear Colleagues,

The quality use of economic pharmacotherapy has always been a central topic in public health. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the gold standard for drug effectiveness and safety research, whereas the characteristics of RCTs (such as a narrow group of participants, relatively short durations of therapies, and strict implementation of randomization) narrow their external validity when applying the trialed drugs in general populations with diverse characteristics and distinct utilization scenarios. Real-world evidence provides insights beyond those derived from RCTs in medical assessments and clinical practice decisions, along with innovative drug assessment approaches based on pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacoeconomics.

Pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacoeconomics encompasses research into the use, effects, and economics of medicines at the population level, including comparative effectiveness research, research detecting and preventing adverse effects, and research using cost-minimization analysis, cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, or cost-utility analysis at the population level. This Special Issue is open for studies on an ad hoc basis.

Though pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacoeconomics serve different aspects of drug assessments, they are closely connected. In pharmacoepidemiologic studies, the distribution of disease and the utilization and beneficial or adverse effects of pharmacotherapy are examined in patient populations. In pharmacoeconomics, studies are conducted using pharmacoepidemiologic evidence and provide economic and quality-of-life value in terms of potential interventions. Thus, the primary aim of this Special Issue is to attract studies into pharmacotherapy assessments with multi-dimensional considerations covering pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacoeconomics.

Authors are welcome to submit original articles and systematic reviews on the effectiveness, safety, and economic burden of pharmacotherapies based on real-world data. Studies bridging pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacoeconomics are of particular interest to this Special Issue. We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Hao Hu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Pharmacoepidemiology is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• real-world data
• effectiveness
• safety
• economics
• benefits
• risks
• adverse effects