Interactive tool
ICER and cost-effectiveness plane explorer
See how incremental cost, incremental effect and a willingness-to-pay threshold combine into an ICER, a net monetary benefit and a position on the cost-effectiveness plane.
Example values for demonstration. Calculations run in your browser; nothing you enter is stored or sent.
Results
- ICER (ΔC ÷ ΔE)
- USD 600per DALY averted
- Net monetary benefit (ΔE × λ − ΔC)
- USD 8,000
Cost-effective at this threshold: net monetary benefit is zero or positive.
How it works
The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) is the difference in cost between an intervention and its comparator divided by the difference in health effect: ICER = ΔC ÷ ΔE.
The net monetary benefit (NMB) converts health gains into money at the willingness-to-pay threshold λ: NMB = ΔE × λ − ΔC. A positive NMB means the intervention is cost-effective at that threshold. Unlike the ICER, NMB is well defined in every quadrant, which makes it easier to interpret and to use in probabilistic analysis.
On the cost-effectiveness plane, the threshold is a line through the origin with slope λ. Results below the line are cost-effective. Results in the south-east quadrant (more effective, less costly) dominate the comparator; results in the north-west quadrant are dominated.
This tool shows a single point estimate. A full analysis would characterise uncertainty, for example with a cloud of probabilistic simulations and a cost-effectiveness acceptability curve, and would justify the threshold for the decision context.
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