Discrete Choice Experiment, an Efficient Approach to Economic Valuation of Benefits in Health Projects and Policies

Today، one of the approaches that in various domains such as health care policy is adopted، is that decision makers in the process of making and implementation of policies، try as far as possible، to consider the preferences and desires of the target population. Therefore، efficient and effective policy design and delivery of health services requires adaptation of their goals to the preferences of the society، which needs knowledge of health policy makers about population’s preferences and their valuation of health programs. Discrete choice experiment (DCE) is one of the best ways to identify the preferences of the population and valuation of outcomes. Because of little knowledge about this approach in iran and limited application of DCE in internal studies especially in the field of health policy، in this paper we emphasis on the reasons of the importance of using a DCE in the health economics and their theorical foundations and applications. We believe that، one of the requirements and prerequisites to successful implementation of the family physician in iran، is the knowledge of policy makers about preferences and desires of participants in this program، i. e. GPs and citizens. Such knowledge، along with other necessary conditions، such as Financing and provision of necessary infrastructure، significantly increases the probability of successful implementation of the scheme.