Events
Heidelberg Health Economics Winter School
We are pleased to announce next year´s Heidelberg Health Economics Winter School (formally Health Economics Summer School [HESS]). This time it will take place during winter, from February 6-10, 2023 at Studio Villa Bosch. Hosted by the German Cancer Research Center's Division of Health Economics, the program will introduce basic concepts of health economics and addresses practical issues faced by health care decision makers responsible for allocating scarce resources. It also includes an advanced module that will focus on current issues regarding the use of health economics to inform market access and reimbursement decisions. Registration is open – we look forward to seeing you there in 2023!
Additional News
Recent Publications:
HTA in England, France and Germany: What do matched drug pairs tell us about recommendations by national agencies?
This Short Communication focuses on health technology assessments (HTAs) from England, France and Germany with a particular interest in matched condition-intervention pairs and their recommendations.
The main objective of the study was to systematically explore official HTA outcomes of matched drug pairs by national agencies in Germany (Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss, GBA), France (Haute Autorité de Santé, HAS) and England and Wales (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, NICE). The authors therefore considered published GBA decisions, HAS reports and NICE guidance from January 2011 to June 2018. HTAs of matched pairs were compared overall, and for non-cancer and cancer drugs separately. Subsequently, the role of additional attributes related to cancer therapies was analyzed.
As a result, matched drug pairs show higher concordance for GBA/HAS than for GBA/NICE and HAS/NICE. NICE evaluated technologies overall more favorably than GBA and HAS. GBA appraisals of cancer drugs, however, tended to be more positive than cancer-related recommendations by NICE and HAS. Finally, the study findings indicate substantial variations in HTAs, although cancer-related outcomes seem to diverge less than non-cancer results.
The paper highlights some of the key findings from an ongoing research project led by the first author Ramon Schaefer, which will be further extended in 2022.
R. Schaefer, D. Hernandez, L Selberg, M. Schlander:
Health technology assessment (HTA) in England, France and Germany: what do matched drug pairs tell us about recommendations by national HTA agencies?
Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research, (2021) 10(16) 1187-1195.
DOI: 10.2217/cer-2021-0047.