Towards a disease-specific health economics model template for metastatic breast cancer

Towards a disease-specific health economics model template for metastatic breast cancer

Health technology assessments (HTA) differ between and within HTA bodies, creating a challenging HTA process. In this thesis of Jeroen Paulissen, is explored if a health-economic model template for metastatic breast cancer can increase the efficiency of the HTA-process, nationally and internationally.

I found that such a template can reduce the complexity of an HTA evaluation, thereby getting the intervention to the patients quicker. I also found such a template needs to balance between uniformity and flexibility. Moreover, I suggest using one model structure, providing guidance on the potential lack of (mature) data, and including all relevant comparators, while keeping one perspective. Notably, the template can best be used by clusters of HTA bodies with a similar view on health economics.

Based on work outlined this thesis and other published literature, I recommend next steps to develop a disease-specific model template for metastatic breast cancer to comprise the following:

1. HTA bodies with a similar view on health economics should cluster.

2. National guidelines need to be collected, consolidated and discussed, for example, concerning the reasons for a perspective and guidance on dealing with lack of (mature) data.

3.          Cluster guidelines for the technical and clinical characteristics of the template should be agreed upon by all stakeholders; i.e., manufacturers, academia, and clinicians.

4. A document with all the details and planned functionalities of the template should be created.

5. Academia should develop the template, focussing on transparency, user-friendliness and accuracy, while balancing uniformity and flexibility.

6. The template needs to be updated regularly.

Dissertation: https://hdl.handle.net/11370/0c0c0d71-73bb-455a-8522-36987cc2bcaf