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| Dr. Shijie Ren |
Dr. Shijie Ren (also known as Kate Ren) has recently published a paper with some colleagues from HEDS and the University of Glasgow proposing a new method of sampling ordered parameters for use in cost-effectiveness analysis. Their new approach, known as the difference method (DM), is designed to address the difficulties of sampling parameters with a constraint in probabilistic sensitivity analysis, e.g., sampling utility associated with different severity levels of a disease.
Dr. Ren, who
specialises in the application of Bayesian methods in health economics, argues
that “Typical sampling approaches often lack either statistical or clinical
validity. For example, sampling using a
common number generator results in extreme dependence, and independent sampling
can lead to realisations with incorrect ordering.”
The DM approach
uses a “difference parameter” to sample the parameters of interest; a method
which generates ordered parameters with greater validity for use in
probabilistic sensitivity analysis.
The article,
published in Pharmacoeconomics, is available open-access and can
be found (along with a Microsoft Excel workbook to implement the method) at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40273-017-0584-3