OHE at HESG: Value-based Assessment in the UK; Developing the EQ-5D-5L

OHE’s contributions focused on approaches to implementing UK value-based assessment and the details of creating an EQ-5D-5L value set for England.
The Health Economists’ Study Group (HESG), based in the UK, was founded in 1972 to support and promote the work of health economists. Its members are from academic, commercial, and government settings.

The Health Economists’ Study Group (HESG), based in the UK, was founded in 1972 to support and promote the work of health economists. Its members are from academic, commercial, and government settings. The purpose of HESG is to transmit knowledge and ideas, ranging from the theoretical to very practical policy issues.

HESG meets twice a year, most recently in January 2013 at the University of Sheffield in the UK. The work of several of OHE’s experts was presented.

Adrian Towse was a speaker at the plenary session, which focused on understanding how the UK’s new value-base assessment (VBA) approach to valuing medicines may be implemented. As the presentation explains, VBA replaces ‘value-based pricing’, which as originally proposed in the UK was intended to achieve several objectives including broadening the definition of value. Adrian’s presentation reviews important issues in defining value, demonstrates how past policies aimed at value have affected the availability of some medicines, and suggests ways forward under the modified, VBA approach.  

For additional information on OHE’s expertise in value-based pricing and/or assessment, click here or contact Adrian Towse.

Presented for discussion was a paper detailing further work on developing an EQ-5D-5L value set for England, co-authored by OHE’s Nancy Devin, Koonal Shah and Yan Feng with Brendan Mulhen, Aki Tsuchiya and Ben van Hout, all of the Univeristy of Sheffield. The paper focuses on methods, particularly issues about valuation data, including how conceptually different types of data might be combined, e.g. time trade off and discrete choice data. Because this work still is in progress, it is not yet available publicly.

For additional information on OHE’s extensive activities in this area, click here or contact Nancy Devlin.