Cost – Benefit Analysis of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences Database in 2007

Abstract Introduction: Increasing costs in almost all of the governments and organizations persuade them to analysis their services in financial and economic dimensions. Because of increasing unnecessary costs, community is limited to achieve social effective goals for health services. We surveyed cost accounting of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences database to to assess its cost benefit. Methods: Current research was descriptive and retrospective. Data collection was carried out through a checklist considering human resource expenditure, consuming material expenditure, capital material depreciation expenditure and Purchase fee. Then the average of expenditure was compared with the amount of article use in each database (Proquest, Blackwell, Springer, Ovid, and Elsevier). Results: Among databases, Elsevier had the most and Springer had the least cost benefit. Conclusion: Manager of informatics system must use management techniques, such as cost analysis method, to make the best decision to decrease the costs. Keywords: Cost Benefit Analysis; Cost and Cost Analysis; Databases; Universities