Estimation of medical equipment prices – a case study of tomotherapy equipment in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Medical equipment (ME) is often considered to be an important factor in the growth of healthcare expenditures. In the Czech Republic (CR) validated approach does not yet exist for hospitals to use to assess commercial offers, nor is there a generally accepted methodology for regulatory bodies to allow for the evaluation of the effectiveness of prior purchases. This study intends to present a methodological approach that will allow for assessing the effectiveness of the procurement of capital ME based on international prices. The case of the purchase of tomotherapy system in the CR was used to demonstrate the developed approach. We performed a multiway search for international estimated and exact prices for tomotherapy unit using public-procurement databases, scientific papers, health technology assessment studies, professional reports, and Internet searches. All of the data that was gathered on prices was subjected to critical assessment vis-à-vis the reliability of the information. This research lays new methodology that may provide general background of international comparison studies focused on ME. The results provide support for decision making about the acquisitions of ME.

Keywords:

• tomotherapy
• medical equipment
• price estimation
• price comparison
• acquisition
• international comparison

JEL Classification:

• I10
• E31

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gleb Donin

Gleb DONIN is a Research Assistant in the Department of Biomedical Technology at Czech Technical University in Prague. He holds an engineer’s degree at speciality “Biotechnical and medical devices and systems” from Bauman Moscow State Technical University (2002–2008). He has worked as an engineer at the laboratory of the information and technical support of the monitoring of medical devices (since 2006) and as a head of that laboratory (2011–2012) at Russian Scientific Research and Testing Institute for Medical Engineering. He is currently a PhD candidate in Biomedical and Clinical Technology at the Czech Technical University in Prague (2012–now). His research interests include health technology management, health technology assessment and medical device regulation.

Miroslav Barták

Miroslav BARTÁK is a Lecturer and Research Fellow at the Faculty of Social and Economic Studies, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic. He holds PhD in Public and Social Policy (2008). He is also involved in working group Health economics at Faculty of economics of the Technical University Dresden, Germany. His research interests include health economics, international comparison of health systems, health policy and public health. He is an author and co-author of four books and about twenty papers in scientific journals, conference proceedings and book chapters.

Peter Kneppo

Peter KNEPPO worked for the Metra Blansko Company in the Czech Republic, later in the Institute of Measurement Science, Slovak Academy of Sciences as Senior Research Scientist and was promoted to the Scientific Director. As a Technical Director at the Chirana Prema Company he took a leading role in development and implementation of new medical devices, and served as a General Director of the Slovak Institute of Metrology, Bratislava, Slovakia in global metrological system. As a Professor, he teaches courses on biomeasurement, modelling and metrology at the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava, Technical University in Košice, Trencin University in Trencin and Czech Technical University in Prague. He was elected as the member of the Slovak and of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Honorary Member of the former Czechoslovak Society of Biomedical Engineering, the pastchairman of the IMEKO TC-13 “Measurements in Medicine and Biology”, the pastpresident of the Slovak Society of Biomedical Engineering and the Fellow of the International Academy of Biomedical Engineering. He has published 7 books and more than 300 other publications dealing with measurements and modelling in medicine and metrology thus continuing in research of biomedical measurement and medical instrumentation, especially measurement and modelling of the cardiac electric and magnetic fields, medical metrology and health technology management.