The Value Of A Medical Intervention To Be Discussed In Upcoming Issue Of 'Value In Health'

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 21 Nov 2008 - 3:00 PST

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Value for money has become an important part of the overall assessment of medical interventions. But, the choice of method for assessing value has significant impact to the result.

The quantification of the value of a medical intervention is assumed to be standardized although different methodology is available; thus the objective of a recent study was to assess whether this holds true or not.

The study published in Value in Health, "Interchangeability of the EQ-5D and the SF-6D in long-lasting low back pain", compares two alternative methods for valuing outcome and concludes that the two do not produce like guidance when applied in patients suffering low back pain. The study was co-authored by Rikke Søgaard, Finn Christensen, Tina Videbæk, Cody Bünger, and Terkel Christiansen.

Says Dr. Rikke Søgaard, who is a health economist at the Centre for Applied Health Services Research and Technology Assessment (CAST) at the University of Southern Denmark, "This research underlines that cautiousness is required when interpreting studies of value for money. The value of a new treatment, say, could be both upwards and downwards biased depending on the choice of instrument for assessing value"

This will be discussed in an upcoming issue of Value in Health, the official journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and outcomes Research.

Value in Health (ISSN 1098-3015) publishes papers, concepts, and ideas that advance the field of pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research and help health care leaders to make decisions that are solidly evidence-based. The journal is published bi-monthly and has a regular readership of over 4,000 clinicians, decision-makers, and researchers worldwide.

ISPOR is a nonprofit, international organization that strives to translate pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research into practice to ensure that society allocates scarce health care resources wisely, fairly, and efficiently.

ISPOR