Health decision analysis: evolution, trends, and emerging topics

Health remains one of the most challenging realms for decision makers and policy making while critical for the well-being of humans, the stability of societies, and the development of economies. Decision making in this field ranges from medical doctors identifying the best treatments for patients, healthcare companies selecting the most promising drugs for development, healthcare providers deciding for adequate levels of resourcing, health regulators deciding whether to approve a new medicine or health technology, to regional and national health departments identifying how to increase the health security of regions and countries. In this positioning paper, and introduction to this Special Issue, we present the history, evolution, and trends of health decision analysis and suggest that these developments and news trends can be conceptualized as an emerging field of applied research for our discipline: Health Decision Analysis.