Benefit-risk preference studies are a specific application of stated-preference methods and are used to determine how your patients and other decision-makers perceive the benefits of your treatment features and their tolerance for possible risks.
Given available treatment choices, patients may be willing to accept certain risks in order to gain the benefit of treatment—risks that others might consider unacceptable. Discrete-choice experiments (DCEs) and other stated-preference methods provide scientifically robust ways to measure preferences and predict the decisions patients, caregivers, and physicians will make when provided with a set of actual treatment options.
Benefit-risk preference studies demonstrate the net benefits of treatments by quantifying the relative importance of benefits and risks and a patient’s maximum acceptable risk (MAR). If the actual risk exposure is less than MAR, then patients experience a positive net benefit from having access to the treatment.
Quantitative estimates of maximum acceptable risk can help you design effective risk management strategies throughout the product development, regulatory, and post-marketing lifecycle.
