Economic evaluation of health care technologies: A comparison of alternative decision modelling techniques

Abstract

The focus of this thesis is on the application of decision models to the economic evaluation of health care technologies. The primary objective addresses the correct choice of modelling technique, as the attributes of the chosen technique could have a significant impact on the process, as well as the results, of an evaluation. Separate decision models, a Markov process and a discrete event simulation (DES) model are applied to a case study evaluation comparing alternative adjuvant therapies for early breast cancer. The case study models are built and analysed as stochastic models: whereby probability distributions are specified to represent the uncertainty about the true values of the model input parameters. Three secondary objectives are also specified. Firstly, the empirical application of the alternative decision models requires the specification of a 'modelling process' that is not well defined in the health economics literature. Secondly, a comparison of alternative methods for specifying probability distributions to describe the uncertainty in the model's input parameters is undertaken. The final secondary objective covers the application of methods for valuing the collection of additional information to inform the resource allocation decision. The empirical application of the two relevant modelling techniques clarifies the potential advantages derived from the increased flexibility provided by DES over Markov models. The thesis concludes that the use of DES should be strongly considered if either of the following issues appear relevant: model parameters are a function of the time spent in particular states, or the data describing the timing of events are not in the form of transition probabilities. The full description of the modelling process provides a resource for health economists wanting to use decision models. No definitive process is established, however, as there exist competing methods for various stages of the modelling process. The main conclusion from the comparison of methods for specifying probability distributions around the input parameters is that the theoretically specified distributions are most likely to provide a common baseline for comparisons between evaluations. The central question that remains to be addressed is which method is the most theoretically correct? The application of a Vol analysis provides useful insights into the methods employed and leads to the identification of particular methodological issues requiring future research in this area.