HEDS is part of the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at the University of Sheffield. We undertake research, teaching, training and consultancy on all aspects of health related decision science, with a particular emphasis on health economics, HTA and evidence synthesis.

Monday 10 October 2016

Real World Data: guidance from the DSU

The NICE Decision Support Unit, based in HEDS, has published a report that provides guidance on the use of real world data (RWD) for the estimation of treatment effects in NICE decision making.

It builds on the NICE Decision Support Unit (DSU) Technical Support Document (TSD17) “The use of observational data to inform estimates of treatment effectiveness in technology appraisal: methods for comparative individual patient data” (Faria et al, 2015), which focused on methods commonly used to estimate treatment effects from non-randomised studies, where individual patient data (IPD) is available.

This report expands on the TSD by considering how RWD has been used to inform decision making in seven of NICE’s programmes, how it could have been used and the guidance that NICE currently provides to those responsible for submitting evidence, critiquing evidence and making decisions based on those assessments.