Health Economics and Technology Assessment Rounds VII
-Health Economics and Technology Assessment Rounds VII
-Event details
Location: Online
Venue: Zoom
Dates: -
The NOAHE Health Economics and Technology Assessment Rounds are presented by the Institute of Health Economics, the University of Calgary Health Economics Group and HTA Unit, and the University of Alberta Health Economics Unit. Their aim is to advance health economics research and support evidence-based health policy, to improve the health outcomes of Canadians.
Round Objectives
- To present research on topics of relevance to Health Economists, trainees, and policymakers across Alberta.
- To bring experts in Health Economics to Alberta to present cutting-edge research.
- To encourage collaboration and discourse between Alberta Health economists and policymakers.
Please note that the views expressed in this series and other deliverables associated with NOAHE are not necessarily representative of any particular organization involved.
Should CADTH Adopt a Societal Perspective?
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 PM MT
A particularly controversial topic in these guidelines concerns the primary ‘perspective’ for the evaluation. The 2nd edition of these guidelines, published in 1997, recommended that “the primary analytic perspective or viewpoint for pharmacoeconomic studies should be the comprehensive societal perspective; that is, all costs and benefits should be identified regardless of who incurs the costs or who receives the benefits”. However, the 3rd edition, published in 2006, instead recommended that the primary analysis should “use the perspective of the publicly funded health care system”. This narrower perspective was retained in the most recent 4th edition, published in 2017.
In April 2023, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) published a competing set of guidelines, intended for economic evaluations of vaccination programs. An important distinction between these and CADTH’s guidelines is that NACI recommends that both a ‘societal’ and a ‘publicly funded health care system’ perspective should be reported by analysts.
It is therefore an opportune time to consider whether CADTH should change its primary perspective back to a ‘societal’ perspective, or maintain its current ‘publicly funded health care system’ perspective, or (in common with NACI) require that both perspectives be reported.
This seminar will consider the arguments in favour of and against each of these options. It will also consider the practical implications of any change in CADTH’s perspective, including the need to modify (perhaps substantially) the $50,000 per QALY ‘threshold’ that CADTH informally uses to assess the cost-effectiveness of technologies so that this would be consistent with a societal perspective. It will be argued that a change in CADTH’s perspective, if appropriately implemented, would not systematically result in more technologies appearing cost-effective, nor would it systematically result in smaller average price reductions being required for technologies to appear cost-effective.
In contrast, a ‘naive’ implementation of a societal perspective, with no corresponding modification of CADTH’s cost-effectiveness ‘threshold’, would be expected to bias CADTH’s economic evaluations in favour of manufacturers and the subset of patients who benefit from new technologies, at the expense of other patients. This could diminish both population health outcomes and broader societal outcomes, and exacerbate health inequalities. The potential equity and policy implications of this will be discussed.
Dr. Paulden is a health economist with an interest in health technology assessment. His research is focused on developing appropriate methods for the economic evaluation of health technologies. Dr. Paulden holds an MA in economics conferred by the University of Cambridge, an MSc in health economics from the University of York, and a PhD in medicine from the University of Alberta. Prior to joining the School of Public Health, he was a senior research associate within Christopher McCabe's health economics research group at the University of Alberta. He also previously held research positions within the Toronto Health Economics and Technology Assessment Collaborative at the University of Toronto, and the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York.
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2023 - 2024 Dates
Jan 17, 2024
Presenter: Dr. Mike Paulden, University of Alberta
Feb 21, 2024
Presenter: Dr. Stephenson Strobel, Cornell University
Mar 20, 2024
Presenter: Dr. Sasha van Katwyk, Institute of Health Economics
Apr 17, 2024
Presenter: TBC
May 15, 2024
Presenter: Dr. Mike Paulden, University of Alberta