Attilio Mucelli is Associate Professor of Management Accounting and Faculty member of the ISTAO Business School. Currently he is also Visiting Professor at the Florida Gulf Coast University (USA). He has coordinated several national and international research projects on the topics of Strategy, Management Accounting, International investment flows and on the Healthcare systems, with a special focus on the integration opportunities between Europa and China. He is member of the board of the directors, board of auditors and consultant, for Strategic planning & Management control activities, for several public and private Companies.
Abstract
This study provides the much-needed evidence on the potential benefits of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practices with respect to their costs. In order to define the framework of analysis, different economic evaluations for the healthcare sector are described first. From an initial appraisal it appears that the ones that are possibly applicable to TCM are cost-effectiveness (CEA), cost-utility (CUA) and cost-benefit (CBA) analysis. Nevertheless, only CEAs and CUAs have been widely used for assessing the relative effectiveness of TCM, whereas very few CBAs have been performed so far, due to the challenge of attributing a monetary value to health. What is more, current cost-effectiveness research in TCM lacks the necessary quality and standardization of a proper analysis model. Therefore, based on the findings of the literature review, a possible approach was structured, describing the suggested steps and necessary tools that would have to be adopted in order to run a complete appraisal of the cost-effectiveness of TCM.
