This is a 3-day course run by the Health Economics Unit within the Centre for Health Policy at the University of Melbourne. It aims  to familiarise participants with the fundamental theories as well as computer-based methods and techniques that are routinely used in economic evaluation with an emphasis on cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses. Economic evaluation has been widely used to assess new health care interventions and technologies and inform decisions about which interventions should be subsidized from available funds. In Australia, for a drug or a medical device to be listed on the PBS or MBS, economic evaluation is required to determine whether it represents value for money.

This computer-based course will cover the analytic steps in an economic evaluation, from methods for analysing cost and outcome data, developing decision analytic and Markov models, conducting sensitivity analyses and reporting and interpreting the results.

Who is this course designed for?

The course is designed for those who are or will be engaged in undertaking health economic evaluation, as well as those who need a more detailed understanding of the current analytic methods of health economic evaluation. These include researchers, clinicians, health care professionals, consultants and those assessing economic evaluations from public, commercial and academic organisations.

Pre-requisites

Participants should have a prior working knowledge of STATA software and an appreciation of the concepts of health economic evaluation. It is recommended that participants be familiar with common commands in STATA, introductory statistics and Microsoft Excel. The course will be computer-based, ‘hands-on’, and participants will be expected to bring a laptop computer (and mouse) with STATA and TreeAge Pro installed for use throughout the course. Licenses for STATA and TreeAge Pro will be supplied as part of the course materials. Exercises for cost and health outcomes analyses are moderately technical with the use of numerous STATA commands; therefore, participants are expected to review STATA commands and familiarize themselves with the exercises before the lectures. If you wish to discuss your suitability for this course, or make special arrangements to hire a laptop, please contact: health-economics@unimelb.edu.au

Course dates

• 12-14th October 2022 (in person)

Course outline

The course will involve a series of modules that build on each other to provide an overview of all the steps required for health economic evaluation.

Day 1

Study Design  Principles (morning)

• Overview of cost-effectiveness analysis?
• What health economic data need to be collected?
• Summary of key  data sources including: clinical trials; linked administrative data; synthesis of the literature

Techniques for  Analysing Costs (afternoon)

• Features of cost data
• Regression methods for analysing health care cost data

Day 2

Techniques for  Analysing Outcomes (morning)

• Quantifying  outcomes using life tables and an overview of survival analysis techniques  including Kaplan Meier, as well as parametric survival functions
• Capturing and analysing preference based measures of  quality of life

Introduction to  decision models (afternoon)

• Building a decision tree
• Introduction to TreeAge including defining transitions and rewards in terms of costs and utilities

Day 3

Markov modelling  and Applications

Conducting cost-effectiveness analysis including modelling Quality  Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) and costs

• Capturing uncertainty and sensitivity analysis
• Presenting and interpreting results for decision makers

Each module will be re-enforced by exercises in Excel and  the specialist modelling software TreeAge and we will demonstrate  aspects of  the course using the statistical software STATA.

Course leaders

A/ Prof. Kim Dalziel, Head of Health Economics Unit, Centre for Health Policy, University of Melbourne

Prof. Andrew Palmer, Head of Health Economics Research Unit, Menzies Research Institute, University of Tasmania

Dr. An Duy Tran (coordinator), Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Health Policy, University of Melbourne