Severity in Value Assessment: From Principle to Practice

There is a wealth of evidence showing societal support to prioritise interventions for severe illnesses and a number of robust methods enabling to reflect this in Health Technology Assessment (HTA) decision-making. However, little practice has been observed in applying greater (and explicit) value to improving health of the sicker patients in value assessments. For example, only recently, has NICE formally introduced a severity modifier in its appraisal process.

This means that there are still treatments for life-threatening or long-lasting and debilitating conditions, which are not funded because they do not meet traditional value assessment paradigms.

Are HTA practices aligned with society preferences?  Have efforts observed, to date, gone far enough to ensure access to treatments most valued by patients and society?

A number of HTA agencies have introduced explicit weights to capture severity. However, there are a methodological and practical challenges that need close attention, and a candid debate among key stakeholders involved in decision-making is needed.

In this Masterclass we brought OHE’s thought leaders and an international expert together to discuss theory, practice and current policy debate around severity, including:

• The most established methods to measure and incorporate severity in HTA, their limitations demonstrated with relevant treatment case studies, and their future prospects;
• Insights and learnings from a real-world HTA system including severity weights;
• New approaches to integrate the severity premium.