Expanding the Role of Early Health Economic Modelling in Evaluation of Health Technologies Comment on "Problems and Promises of Health Technologies: The Role of Early Health Economic Modeling".

Carlo Federic,Aleksandra Torbica

doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2020.18

Abstract

In this commentary, we discuss early stage assessments of innovative medical technologies both in terms of methods applied as well as their use in healthcare decision-making. We argue that cost-effectiveness alone may be too reductive if taken as the only decision rule, and it would benefit from being used within a broader evaluation framework. We discuss innovative methods which may contribute to better estimate the potential costs and consequences of a technology in the absence of solid clinical data, as frequently the case in early assessments. Finally, we comment on the potential synergies which may take place should early economic models be used not only by technology developers alone but as a negotiating base during early dialogues with health technology assessment (HTA) bodies.

Highlights

For example Hartz and colleagues argue that early health economic modelling may support technology developers by providing relevant insights on strategic R&D decision-making, pre-clinical preliminary market assessments, go/no-go decisions and identification of potentially successful projects, development of future trial design, assessment of future reimbursement and pricing scenarios and price determination.[6]
The authors disclose and discuss data on previously developed early health economic modelling assessments on 30 innovations conducted by their team, all of which were non-drug technologies
It is worth noting that in their assessments, the authors did not identify any technology for which a firm no-go decision was recommended. This is an interesting result as early health economic modelling has been often claimed to be able to support technology developers in taking this type of strategic go/no-go decisions.[6,8]

Summary

Introduction

The concept of early-stage health economic modelling has been around since the mid-nineties,[1,2,3,4] and its potential role to support technology developers decisions have been broadly explored in a number of reviews.[5,6,7,8] For example Hartz and colleagues argue that early health economic modelling may support technology developers by providing relevant insights on strategic R&D decision-making, pre-clinical preliminary market assessments, go/no-go decisions and identification of potentially successful projects, development of future trial design, assessment of future reimbursement and pricing scenarios and price determination.[6]The work by Grutters et al,[9] recently published in IJHPM, nicely reports on real case studies providing interesting insights on how early health economic models have been implemented and how they have been used to assess the potential cost-effectiveness and inform further development, implementation and positioning of innovations in clinical practice. The work by Grutters et al,[9] recently published in IJHPM, nicely reports on real case studies providing interesting insights on how early health economic models have been implemented and how they have been used to assess the potential cost-effectiveness and inform further development, implementation and positioning of innovations in clinical practice.

Results

Conclusion