PECUNIA Reference Unit Cost (RUC) Compendium

Medical University of Vienna

Wien | Website

Open for Collaboration

Short Description

The PECUNIA Reference Unit Costs Compendium (PECUNIA RUC Compendium) is a Microsoft Excel®-based multi-sectoral, multi-country database of unit costs comparable across countries and sectors and developed using standardized and scientifically validated methods (so called Reference Unit Costs (RUCs)). The RUCs include services related to healthcare interventions beyond the health and social care sector, including also the education, justice, employment and informal care domaine, and covers multiple countries (including Austria).

It is a living document planned to be regularly updated and expanded both in terms of the covered service and resource use items and the number of countries over time. Potential users of the PECUNIA RUC Compendium include national and international researchers, decision-makers, service providers and health professionals.

Contact Person

DDr. Judit Simon

Research Services

Aims to support the feasibility and quality of conducting economic evaluations and costing studies; Database including RUCs (Reference Unit costs) for selected services in multiple sectors (health, social care, education, justice, productivity, informal care) in multiple countries (Austria, Germany, Hungary, England, The Netherlands, Spain).

Methods & Expertise for Research Infrastructure

The RUCs (reference costs) were developed using standardized and validated PECUNIA RUC Templates (https://www.pecunia-project.eu/tools/ruc-templates) to introduce a higher degree of methodological harmonization and transparency in unit costs within and across sectors and countries. The methodology was developed by the scientific partners of the PECUNIA Consortium between 2019 and 2021, including the Department of Health Economics, Center for Public Health at the Medical University of Vienna.

Terms of Use

Anyone wishing to use the PECUNIA RUC Compendium for non-commercial research, healthcare and academic teaching activities can do so free-of-charge following registration. Please complete the Registration Form and return it to pecunia@meduniwien.ac.at. You need either Adobe Acrobat Reader or any other programme that can read a pdf File in order to open and fill out the Registration Form. Once registered, you will receive a link to view the PECUNIA RUC Compendium and to download the corresponding user guide. If you have any questions about using the PECUNIA RUC Compendium or have troubles with viewing it via the provided link, please contact us via email at pecunia@meduniwien.ac.at.

In case of interest for the commercial use of the PECUNIA RUC Compendium, please contact the developers via e-mail at pecunia@meduniwien.ac.at first.

Reference Projects

PECUNIA (ProgrammE in Costing, resource use measurement and outcome valuation for Use in multi-sectoral National and International health economic evaluAtions), 2018-2021, coordinated at the Medical University of Vienna. The PECUNIA project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 779292. Further information available at: https://www.pecunia-project.eu/.

Reference Publications

Mayer S, Fischer C, Zechmeister-Koss I, Ostermann H, Simon J. Are Unit Costs the Same? A Case Study Comparing Different Valuation Methods for Unit Cost Calculation of General Practitioner Consultations. Value Health. 2020 Sep;23(9):1142-1148. doi: 10.1016/j.jval.2020.06.001.

Mayer S, Berger M, Konnopka A, Brodszky V, Evers SMAA, Hakkaart-van Roijen L, Guitérrez-Colosia MR, Salvador-Carulla L, Park AL, Hollingworth W, García-Pérez L, Simon J, On Behalf Of The Pecunia Group. In Search for Comparability: The PECUNIA Reference Unit Costs for Health and Social Care Services in Europe. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Mar 16;19(6):3500. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19063500.

Berger M, Mayer S, Simon J. A novel set of Austrian reference unit costs for comprehensive societal perspectives consistent with latest European costing methods for economic evaluations. Wien Klin Wochenschr. 2024 Jan;136(1-2):1-12. doi: 10.1007/s00508-022-02128-6.