For all you Hanover Consensus groupies out there, the November issue of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) is a must read. Here's a sneak peak.
Leading the ISPOR hit parade is "German Recommendations on Health Economic Evaluation: Third and Updated Version of the Hanover Consensus."
Consider these tidbits:
"All benefit parameters that are relevant for the study situation in question should be incorporated in the assessment. It may be that data from various sources must be taken into account, which can be acomplished with the help of models. Possible essential data sources include medical meta-analyses, randomized clinical studies, as well as epidemiological observational data on the disease or long-term impacts of the disease. Additional relevant sources are cohort studies, data from health-care services research, data on current therapy standards, and possibly also expert opinions wherever other evidence is not available." (p.540)
And:
"The comparative quantification of the effectiveness of treatment alternatives requires studies that have a scientific design comparable to the designs in randomized, controlled studies. As a prerequisite for economic considerations in a specific case, clinical studies evaluating medical efficacy are indispensible. Nevertheless, as mentioned before, clinical studies often cannot serve as the sole basis of information for a health economic assessment. A realistic estimate of the costs can be limited under study conditions, if the use of some health-care services only arises from the study plan." (pp.541-542)
In the same blockbuster (block that metaphor!) issue, Peter L. Kolominsky-Rabas ((IQWiG) and J. Jamie Caro (Department of Medicine and Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McGill University) offer a sort of minority report in the form of an editorial.
In speaking about the updated Hanover Consensus, Kolominsky-Rabas and Caro write that:
"It is a remarkable achievement to being together most of the health economics community in Germany. To reach consensus in such a large group, however, much must be left unspecified and the exercise tends to be a search for the lowest common denominator." (p. 545)
And, they conclude:
"Little seems to have been changed from the previous HCG version published almost a decade ago. Meeting the worthy goals of the HCG -- to provide standards and yet promote methodological progress and scientific innovation in health economics -- requires more than a compilation of disparate current approaches. Actual recommendations must be concrete, tailored to the German context, coherent, and carefully justified, if they are to be helpful to German decision-makers." (p.546)
Ouch.
Leading the ISPOR hit parade is "German Recommendations on Health Economic Evaluation: Third and Updated Version of the Hanover Consensus."
Consider these tidbits:
"All benefit parameters that are relevant for the study situation in question should be incorporated in the assessment. It may be that data from various sources must be taken into account, which can be acomplished with the help of models. Possible essential data sources include medical meta-analyses, randomized clinical studies, as well as epidemiological observational data on the disease or long-term impacts of the disease. Additional relevant sources are cohort studies, data from health-care services research, data on current therapy standards, and possibly also expert opinions wherever other evidence is not available." (p.540)
And:
"The comparative quantification of the effectiveness of treatment alternatives requires studies that have a scientific design comparable to the designs in randomized, controlled studies. As a prerequisite for economic considerations in a specific case, clinical studies evaluating medical efficacy are indispensible. Nevertheless, as mentioned before, clinical studies often cannot serve as the sole basis of information for a health economic assessment. A realistic estimate of the costs can be limited under study conditions, if the use of some health-care services only arises from the study plan." (pp.541-542)
In the same blockbuster (block that metaphor!) issue, Peter L. Kolominsky-Rabas ((IQWiG) and J. Jamie Caro (Department of Medicine and Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McGill University) offer a sort of minority report in the form of an editorial.
In speaking about the updated Hanover Consensus, Kolominsky-Rabas and Caro write that:
"It is a remarkable achievement to being together most of the health economics community in Germany. To reach consensus in such a large group, however, much must be left unspecified and the exercise tends to be a search for the lowest common denominator." (p. 545)
And, they conclude:
"Little seems to have been changed from the previous HCG version published almost a decade ago. Meeting the worthy goals of the HCG -- to provide standards and yet promote methodological progress and scientific innovation in health economics -- requires more than a compilation of disparate current approaches. Actual recommendations must be concrete, tailored to the German context, coherent, and carefully justified, if they are to be helpful to German decision-makers." (p.546)
Ouch.
