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| ISPOR Value in Health |
Global Expert Panel Publishes New Recommendations on
the
Use of Health State Utilities in Cost-Effectiveness Models
A Report of the ISPOR Good Practices for Outcomes
Research Task Force
The task force report provides recommendations for
researchers who identify, review, and synthesize health state utilities (HSUs) for
use in cost-effectiveness models; analysts who use the results in models; and
reviewers who critically appraise the suitability and validity of the HSUs selected
for use in models. The report provides guidance regarding:
- The iterative nature of searching for HSUs,
reviewing and synthesizing the evidence identified and their application in
cost-effectiveness models
- Minimum reporting standards for HSUs used in
cost-effectiveness models
- Use of HSUs in cost-effectiveness models
The task force report’s internationally applicable SpRUCE checklist
should be used by reviewers of manuscripts and reports of modelling work to
ensure the suitability, validity, and quality of the HSUs are sufficient to
inform healthcare policy making.
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| Professor John Brazier |
“This report provides guidance for identifying, reviewing,
and synthesizing health state utilities from the literature and using health
state utilities in cost-effectiveness models,” said author John Brazier, PhD,
Dean and Professor of Health Economics, School of Health and Related Research,
University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, UK.
“This task force report was
written to correct current poor practice in health state utility identification.
Analysts frequently cite dated values used in previous cost-effectiveness
models without undertaking basic quality checks of the data in the original
source material, such as the relevance of the patient population, utility
instrument, elicitation method or sources of the preference weights. These
shortcuts can render the results uninterpretable when health state utilities derived
from a variety of methods and populations are pieced together.” These task force recommendations and the ISPOR SpRUCE checklist
offer a structured and more transparent basis for identifying and reporting the
HSUs used in a cost-effectiveness model.”
The Importance of Health
State Utilities:
Health state utilities, which estimate the value of a health
state on a scale where 1 represents full health and 0 represents dead, are used
to inform policy decisions in many parts of the world. Preference value
estimates are usually obtained by querying a sample of the general population
or a patient population. If HSUs are not available from clinical trial data and
conducting a study to collect this evidence is not feasible, HSUs are often
obtained from the literature. This
approach can be problematic because analysts frequently cite outdated evidence
used in previous evaluations, systematic reviews of the literature are rarely
undertaken for HSUs, and current reporting standards of HSUs used in
cost-effectiveness models are often poor.
ABOUT
ISPOR
ISPOR, the professional society for health economics and outcomes
research (HEOR), is an international, multistakeholder, nonprofit dedicated to
advancing HEOR excellence to improve decision making for health globally. The
Society is the leading source for scientific conferences, peer-reviewed and
MEDLINE®-indexed publications, good practices guidance, education,
collaboration, and tools/resources in the field.
ABOUT VALUE
IN HEALTH
Value
in Health (ISSN 1098-3015) is an international, indexed journal that
publishes original research and health policy articles that advance the field
of health economics and outcomes research to help healthcare leaders make
evidence-based decisions. The journal’s 2017 impact factor score is 5.494. Value
in Health is ranked 3rd among 94 journals in healthcare sciences and
services, 3rd among 79 journals in health policy and services, and 6th among 353
journals in economics. Value in Health is a monthly publication that circulates
to more than 10,000 readers around the world.
ABOUT
ISPOR GOOD PRACTICES FOR OUTCOMES RESEARCH TASK FORCE REPORTS
ISPOR has earned an international reputation for research excellence based, in part, on its Good Practices for Outcomes
Research Task Force Reports. These
highly cited reports are expert consensus recommendations on good
practice standards for outcomes research (clinical, economic, and
patient-reported outcomes) and on the use of this research in healthcare
decision making. ISPOR Task Forces comprise
subject matter experts representing different stakeholders from diverse work
environments (ie, regulators, payers, manufacturers, technology assessors, etc
from research, government, academic, and industry sectors around the world). All
ISPOR Good Practices for Outcomes Research Reports are published in the
Society’s scientific journal, Value
in Health, and are made freely available as part of the
Society’s mission. The Society’s Good Practices for Outcomes Research Reports
have been recognized with an ASAE “Power of A” award that acknowledges
innovative, effective, and broad-reaching programs that have a positive impact
on the world.
