DESCRIPTION:
Health state utility (HSU) estimates are among the most important and uncertain data inputs in cost-utility models and are increasingly being used to inform health technology assessment, pricing, and reimbursement decisions in many countries. The ISPOR Outcomes Research Guideline, Collecting Health-State Utility Estimates for Economic Models in Clinical Studies, has been developed recently by an ISPOR Task Force to help researchers plan the collection and analysis of health utility data in clinical studies in order to provide high quality HSU estimates appropriate for economic. This short course provides an opportunity to review and discuss the content of the guideline, with a view to improving the effectiveness of utility data measurement in clinical studies. The focus will be on optimizing the collection of utility data to provide HSU estimates for economic models. Specifically, the course will address key challenges surrounding study design, data collection and analysis. This will include how to anticipate and address common issues that may affect data quality, alignment with the needs of economic model, acceptability to the model audience, and how to apply good research practices for HSU estimation in future research. The course will not cover the fundamentals of utility theory, the development of generic or condition-specific preference-based multi-attribute utility instruments, or how to perform time trade-off or standard gamble experiments. Nor will it cover statistical methods for mapping/cross-walking from a condition-specific HRQL measure. The course will be of value for researchers actively involved in the design or implementation of HSU data collection or analysis, those involved in patient-reported outcomes research, economic modeling, economic evaluation or health technology assessment. This course is for those with some experience with quality of life measures in health economic evaluation.
