OBJECTIVES: To determine the disease focus of all papers indexed in the PubMed database that reported costs or resource use as an outcome and were published in 2014. METHODS: An evidence surveillance process was established based on a systematic search of PubMed, using key words relevant to the costs or resource use associated with healthcare or disease and limited to studies published in English, in humans, with abstracts, and either clinical trials or observational, comparative or multicentre studies. The surveillance incorporated all studies published from 2010 and was updated weekly. Abstracts identified by the search of studies that reported data on economic burden outcomes were indexed according to disease area, using the chapter categorisation from ICD-10 as a framework. To account for the delay in indexing of publications, we included all studies with a publication date of 2014 that were indexed in PubMed up to 1 June 2015. RESULTS: The search identified 1,870 articles published in 2014. Of these, 975 met the inclusion criteria and were subcategorised according to topic. The greatest number, 13%, were conducted in patients with cardiovascular diseases, with 11% in musculoskeletal disorders, 10% each in cancer and digestive disorders, 8% in mental health disorders, 7% each in infective disease or acute care, and 6% each in respiratory, endocrine and urogenital disorders, and in general populations or healthcare settings. All other disease areas were relatively underrepresented, accounting for 2% or fewer of the relevant publications. CONCLUSIONS: Despite product pipelines being weighted towards new cancer drugs and the challenges in demonstrating their cost-effectiveness, cancers are relatively under-represented in recent studies assessing economic burden. The reasons why costs may be less important an outcome in cancer than in cardiovascular or musculoskeletal diseases are unclear, but may reflect a more established, often generic or surgical, therapeutic portfolio.