OBJECTIVES: To investigate the potential role of pharmacoeconomics in decision making and education. METHODS: A group of 102 people with backgrounds in health economics/pharmacoeconomics was interviewed. Interviewees were students (23), medical doctors (28), pharmacists (36), managers/economists (22) by education, working in hospitals, outpatient clinics, pharmacies, and the pharmaceutical industry. They were asked about: sources of information that should be used by decision makers at different levels of a Health care sector, barriers to practical application of pharmacoeconomic evaluation results, criteria for inclusion/exclusion of drugs in a hospital formulary, means by which economic evaluation utilization could become more common, needs for education initiatives. RESULTS: A total of 86% of responders indicated that expert opinion and 66% that articles in reviewed scientific journals are the most important source of information for reimbursement decisions. At management level, also expert opinion (77%) and scientific journals (65%) played a key role. In relations between pharmacist / physician and patient, personal opinion is vital (58%), followed by experts' opinion (55%) and information from scientific press (50%). Limited interest in pharmacoeconomic analyses focusing only on cost-containment (77%) followed by lack of Governmental Agencies' involvement in introduction of regulations (61%), difficulties in applying long-term view (57%) and limited access to cost data (lack of national cost database) (57%) were recognized as main barriers. On inclusion to hospital formulary, acquisition cost (70%) and efficacy (96%) were crucial, hospital savings were less important (50%). Wider use of pharmacoeconomic studies may be due to more educational initiatives (74%), creation of professional cost databases (72%) and transparent criteria of evaluation (69%). A total of 86% of responders declared the need to expand their knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: Education, cost databases and regulations seem to be the most important in the future development of pharmacoeconomics and health economics in Poland. Confirmation of these preliminary results requires broader investigation.