Cost Effectiveness Modelling for Health Technology Assessment: A Practical Course

This book provides an introduction to decision analytic cost-effectiveness modelling, giving the theoretical and practical knowledge required to design and implement analyses that meet the methodological standards of health technology assessment organisations. The book guides you through building a decision tree and Markov model and, importantly, shows how the results of cost-effectiveness analyses are interpreted. Given the complex nature of cost-effectiveness modelling and the often unfamiliar language that runs alongside it, we wanted to make this book as accessible as possible whilst still providing a comprehensive, in-depth, practical guide that reflects the state of the art –  that includes the most recent developments in cost-effectiveness modelling. Although the nature of cost effectiveness modelling means that some parts are inevitably quite technical, across the 13 chapters we have broken down explanations of theory and methods into bite-sized pieces that you can work through at your own pace; we have provided explanations of terms and methods as we use them. Importantly, the exercises and online workbooks allow you to test your skills and understanding as you go along.

Table of Contents:
Cost Effectiveness Analysis and Health Technology Assessment: An overview. - Building a decision tree cost effectiveness model. - An introduction to sensitivity analysis in Cost Effectiveness Analysis. - Implementing Probabilistic Sensitivity Analysis in Excel®. - Outputs from Probabilistic Sensitivity Analysis-Part 1. - Introduction to Markov Cost Effectiveness Models. - Building a Markov Cost Effectiveness Model Part One – constructing the Markov structure. - Building a Markov Cost Effectiveness Model Part Two – Model Design Issues. - Probabilistic Sensitivity Analysis Effectiveness Parameters. - Probabilistic Sensitivity Analysis for Cost Parameters. - Probabilistic Sensitivity Analysis for Utility Parameters. - Probabilistic Sensitivity Analysis and Correlated Parameters – Cholesky Decomposition. - Outputs from Probabilistic Sensitivity Analysis – Part 2. - Understanding Health Care as an investment: Break Even Curves and Net Benefit Probability Maps. - Cost effectiveness analysisand risk sharing for innovative technologies – Technology Leasing Schemes. - Policy Responses to Uncertainty in Health Technology Appraisal. - Value of Information Analysis Part 1: The Cost of Making the Wrong Decision. - Value of Information Analysis Part 2: Investing in reduced uncertainty.​

About the Author :
Dr Richard Edlin, PhD is a Senior Lecturer based within the Health Systems section of the School of Population Health, University of Auckland, New Zealand.  Richard has published within both economics- and clinically-focused journals, including the top field journals in health economics.  Much of his research involves cost-effectiveness analysis. Richard leads teaching on postgraduate cost effectiveness.   Professor Christopher McCabe, PhD, holds a Capital Health Endowed Research Chair at the University of Alberta, having previously held Chairs at the Universities of Leeds, Warwick and Sheffield. He is on the health economics working group for Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH). He has acted as a consultant for public and private sector organizations in Europe, North America and Australasia; most notably with NICE in the UK. His primary research interest is in the development of efficient research and development processesfor biotherapies and devices in the context of value based reimbursement market access hurdles.   Professor Claire Hulme, PhD, holds a Chair in Health Economics and is head of the Academic Unit of Health Economics at the University of Leeds. She is on the National Institute of Health Research Health Technology Assessment Commissioning Panel in the UK. Her research interests lie in the economic evaluation of community programmes spanning the health and social care sectors, particularly economic evaluation alongside clinical trials.   Dr Peter Hall, MBChB, PhD, is a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh and a visiting Health Economist at the University of Leeds. He practices as a medical oncologist with an interest in breast cancer. His research interests include the use routine healthcare data, clinical pathway analysis and Bayesian decision modelling to inform efficient research design. He has an interest in the economic evaluation of diagnostic tests and personalised medicine strategies. He is a past National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence Scholar.   Judy Wright, MSc is a Senior Information Specialist and a qualified Librarian. Within her current role she leads the development of health research information support with a team of Information Specialists  located within the Academic Unit of Health Economics, University of Leeds. Judy manages a portfolio of activities supporting health economics research that includes custom-made literature searching, reference management and search methodology advice.  

Review :
“This book … is a timely addition to the dearth of practical guides to cost-effectiveness modelling. … This book will be helpful to students and early-career modellers who are keen to develop their skills in cost-effectiveness modelling. We would further recommend the text to professional health economists working outside of the UK and Canadian contexts who are aiming to widen their understanding of international approaches to cost-effectiveness modelling.” (Ahmed Abdulla and Angela Stainthorpe, Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, April, 2016) “An excellent addition to the increasing textbook options in the field of economic evaluation in health care. It fills an important gap in terms of a more practical focus on the application of the concepts and theoretical principles underlying the discipline. … It will be best used as either a stand-alone text for a short course for health care decision makers to understand the application of the discipline or as a companion text for introductory graduate courses in economic evaluation.” (Doug Coyle, PharmacoEconomics, Vol. 34 (4), April, 2016)