Every Monday our authors provide a round-up of some of the most recently published peer reviewed articles from the field. We don’t cover everything, or even what’s most important – just a few papers that have interested the author. Visit our Resources page for links to more journals or follow the HealthEconBot. If you’d like to write one of our weekly journal round-ups, get in touch.
Redistribution and redesign in health care: an ebbing tide in England versus growing concerns in the United States. Health Economics [PubMed] Published 4th May 2017
Health Economics included an editorial that will be of interest to a wider readership. It focusses on the similarities and differences between the US and the UK’s health care systems, particularly in terms of (re)design, redistribution, and the challenges facing each. The UK system is characterised by a preference for collectivism in funding and access, and in the US, a pluralism of funding. In both countries, groups seek to reverse their existing approach (the grass is always greener). The editorial outlines recent changes in healthcare design, notably, the impact of the affordable care act (ACA). The main focus of the editorial is twofold: i) a discussion of the efforts in England to limit public spending whilst increasing hospital sector efficiency, ii) discussion of the US’s attempt to reduce the growth in the role of government in financing and delivering healthcare. In respect to the UK, the diagnosis is worrying yet unsurprising: chronic underfunding combined with a plethora of unevidenced reform proposals has left the NHS on a knife-edge; the prognosis is that it is uncertain whether the NHS will survive the next few years. In the US, the picture is more complex and the paper discussed possible repeal components of the ACA. A key point of the discussion relates to the assumption that US healthcare is much more expensive than any OECD country due to American’s using too much medical care. In fact as the authors note, the evidence points to the contrary, and the high expenditure is due to a myriad of factors including high wages, high drug prices, and a system which requires many more lawyers, administrators and consultants. The paper discusses various nuances with both systems in the current political context and is well worth reading for a quick overview of some the key issues facing both countries.
Statistical alchemy: conceptual validity and mapping to generate health state utility values. Pharmacoeconomics – Open Published 15th May 2017
With a passing interest in mapping and counting myself as a bit of a mapping skeptic, this paper discussing mapping in terms of ‘statistical alchemy’ obviously caught my eye. As most will know, mapping is a frequently used technique to obtain utility estimates by predicting utility values from data collected using other measures. The focus of the paper is ‘conceptual validity’: ‘the degree to which the content of two different instruments reflect one another when used for mapping’. There were three aims i) explain the idea of conceptual validity in relation to mapping, ii) consider the implications of poor conceptual validity when mapping for decision making in the context of resource allocation, and iii) provide suggestions to improve conceptual validity. The paper successfully achieves the first goal with an exposition of the (many) issues with mapping in relation to conceptual validity. The paper highlights that poor conceptual validity will result in systematic biases in the preferences for health when mapped estimates are used. This is aptly demonstrated through an example using a multiple sclerosis measure, and the EQ-5D. A number of ways for improving the conceptual validity are also presented, these include: i) response mapping, ii) assessment of ‘conceptual decision validity’ (which draws upon face, construct and criterion validity) to determine whether there is a prima facie case that a mapping function may lead to a valid decision, and iii) the need to examine ‘what is lost’ should mapping be used. I found it to be a thoughtful paper, and echoed some of my concerns with existing mapping functions. For those interested in conducting a mapping exercise this is an essential read as an introduction to some of the pitfalls you will encounter.
Is there additional value attached to health gains at the end of life? A revisit. Health Economics Published 1st June 2017
Following NICE’s (2009) guidance for the acceptability of higher cost-per-QALY thresholds for life extending treatments, the past eight years has seen an increase in research examining whether the general public actually have an appetite for this. That is, do the general public have a preference for an end of life premium? Many studies have sought to answer this, with mixed results. All previous attempts however, have tackled this issue from an ex-post perspective: respondents are asked to choose between providing treatment after the diagnosis when they face a shorter life expectancy without treatment. The issue highlighted in this paper is that by presenting life expectancy as certain and salient (e.g. 2 years, or 10 years), it may be interpreted as a life sentence regardless of length. This paper goes down an alternative route by adopting an ex-ante insurance approach. Additionally a new comparator is used, end of life treatment is compared with a preventative treatment that offers life extension with the same expected health gain. It also explores whether preferences depend on recipient age. The paper found that preventative treatments were prioritised over end of life treatments, and thus a dearth of justification for the end of life premium exists. This is another addition to the mixed literature regarding preferences for end of life treatments. The paper does have its limitations which it readily admits. It is however another useful addition this tricky research area.
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