Why and How to Consolidate Your Decision Modelling for Health Economic Evaluation
Contributing Author:
Isobel Pearson, DPhil
Senior Director, Value and Access
RTI Health Solutions
You have created—or are creating—a health economic decision model such as cost-effectiveness and budget impact analyses, to support reimbursement and pricing decisions for your health intervention. Great! But that model is designed for a specific country. What if you want to go for approval or reimbursement in other countries? Virtually all countries have different requirements.
Often a “core model” is developed to support a new or existing healthcare intervention and then adapted by vendors for use to support decision-making in different countries. The adaptation process can be challenging or even inefficient due to internal company organizational changes, increasing sophistication of HTA/reimbursement requirements, or challenges of using multiple vendors to adapt the original model.
The ability to develop and adapt economic models that meet country-specific standards for HTA submissions is crucial for a successful global launch of new treatments.
Core Models and Continuity in Adaptations
Local modelling vendors may have established relationships with local affiliates; however, working with separate local modelling teams across multiple model adaptations can lead to fragmentation. Local modelling teams will not be up to date with the decisions and assumptions made by the global core modelling team during the initial model development. Valuable time and budget will be required to bring each team up to speed.
However, a vendor that has the knowledge and experience to develop both the core model and adaptations can work more efficiently and generate cost-efficiencies. The developers will be fully up to date on why decisions and assumptions were made during the development of the core model. This ensures efficient knowledge transfer and helps support the incorporation of complex model programming required for individual HTA/reimbursement submissions. Identifying an all-in-one partner with the ability to develop the core model and multicountry adaptations well will provide invaluable stability and continuity.
Our team of international experts have put together a list of questions you might find helpful when searching for a vendor to provide an inclusive modelling solution.
Questions to ask a vendor about their ability to provide core model and adaptation services:
- In which countries do you have experience preparing an HTA submission-ready model
- Do you have access to the local data required for the adaptations?
- Does your team have the capability to perform the systematic and/or targeted literature reviews and statistical analyses (e.g., survival and/or utility weight analyses) needed for evidence generation aligned with individual HTA/reimbursement authority requirements?
- Do you regularly work with external experts that have been involved in the country’s HTA/reimbursement processes?
- What is your experience in conducting advisory board meetings to review economic models and refine them for HTA/reimbursement submissions?
- Does your team have the capability to incorporate complex model updates that may be required following feedback from external experts and/or to align with HTA/reimbursement requirements?
- Does your team routinely validate and quality-check global core models that require adaptation?
