Cost-utility analysis is a requirement for NICE health technology appraisals and is being increasingly used in other contexts and countries. Health utilities, a crucial component of cost-utility analysis, capture the relative change in health-related quality of life resulting from a treatment. As such, health utility can be a key driver of the cost-effectiveness ratio. Obtaining health utility values that are suitable for your economic evaluation, however, may not always be straight forward.
This one-day training course, organised by YHEC, complements the early economic modelling course, discussing issues around different approaches to obtaining utility values. It introduces each approach in turn, giving an overview of the implementation, strengths, and limitations of each, across different contexts.
Further topics discussed include examples of different approaches used in real-world NICE health technology assessments with comments from evidence review groups, and a look at the limitations of utilities and how alternative approaches might be used in the future.