The book provides a description of the process of health economic evaluation and modelling for cost-effectiveness analysis, particularly from the perspective of a Bayesian statistical approach. Some relevant theory and introductory concepts are presented using practical examples and two running case studies. The book also describes in detail how to perform health economic evaluations using the R package BCEA (Bayesian Cost-Effectiveness Analysis). BCEA can be used to post-process the results of a Bayesian cost-effectiveness model and perform advanced analyses producing standardised and highly customisable outputs. It presents all the features of the package, including its many functions and their practical application, as well as its user-friendly web interface. The book is a valuable resource for statisticians and practitioners working in the field of health economics wanting to simplify and standardise their workflow, for example in the preparation of dossiers in support of marketing authorisation, or academic and scientific publications.

Cost-effectiveness analysis is becoming an increasingly important tool for decision making in the health systems. Cost-Effectiveness of Medical Treatments formulates the cost-effectiveness analysis as a statistical decision problem, identifies the sources of uncertainty of the problem, and gives an overview of the frequentist and Bayesian statistical approaches for decision making. Basic notions on decision theory such as space of decisions, space of nature, utility function of a decision and optimal decisions, are explained in detail using easy to read mathematics. Features Focuses on cost-effectiveness analysis as a statistical decision problem and applies the well-established optimal statistical decision methodology. Discusses utility functions for cost-effectiveness analysis. Enlarges the class of models typically used in cost-effectiveness analysis with the incorporation of linear models to account for covariates of the patients. This permits the formulation of the group (or subgroup) theory. Provides Bayesian procedures to account for model uncertainty in variable selection for linear models and in clustering for models for heterogeneous data. Model uncertainty in cost-effectiveness analysis has not been considered in the literature. Illustrates examples with real data. In order to facilitate the practical implementation of real datasets, provides the codes in Mathematica for the proposed methodology. The motivation for the book is to make the achievements in cost-effectiveness analysis accessible to health providers, who need to make optimal decisions, to the practitioners and to the students of health sciences. Elías Moreno is Professor of Statistics and Operational Research at the University of Granada, Spain, Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Spain, and elect member of ISI. Francisco José Vázquez-Polo is Professor of Mathematics and Bayesian Methods at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and Head of the Department of Quantitative Methods. Miguel Ángel Negrín is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Quantitative Methods at the ULPGC. His main research topics are Bayesian methods applied to Health Economics, economic evaluation and cost-effectiveness analysis, meta-analysis and equity in the provision of healthcare services.

Value of Information for Healthcare Decision-Making introduces the concept of Value of Information (VOI) use in health policy decision-making to determine the sensitivity of decisions to assumptions, and to prioritise and design future research. These methods, and their use in cost-effectiveness analysis, are increasingly acknowledged by health technology assessment authorities as vital. Key Features: Provides a comprehensive overview of VOI Simplifies VOI Showcases state-of-the-art techniques for computing VOI Includes R statistical software package Provides results when using VOI methods Uses realistic decision model to illustrate key concepts The primary audience for this book is health economic modellers and researchers, in industry, government, or academia, who wish to perform VOI analysis in health economic evaluations. It is relevant for postgraduate researchers and students in health economics or medical statistics who are required to learn the principles of VOI or undertake VOI analyses in their projects. The overall goal is to improve the understanding of these methods and make them easier to use.

Since the early 2000s, there has been increasing interest within the pharmaceutical industry in the application of Bayesian methods at various stages of the research, development, manufacturing, and health economic evaluation of new health care interventions. In 2010, the first Applied Bayesian Biostatistics conference was held, with the primary objective to stimulate the practical implementation of Bayesian statistics, and to promote the added-value for accelerating the discovery and the delivery of new cures to patients. This book is a synthesis of the conferences and debates, providing an overview of Bayesian methods applied to nearly all stages of research and development, from early discovery to portfolio management. It highlights the value associated with sharing a vision with the regulatory authorities, academia, and pharmaceutical industry, with a view to setting up a common strategy for the appropriate use of Bayesian statistics for the benefit of patients. The book covers: Theory, methods, applications, and computing Bayesian biostatistics for clinical innovative designs Adding value with Real World Evidence Opportunities for rare, orphan diseases, and pediatric development Applied Bayesian biostatistics in manufacturing Decision making and Portfolio management Regulatory perspective and public health policies Statisticians and data scientists involved in the research, development, and approval of new cures will be inspired by the possible applications of Bayesian methods covered in the book. The methods, applications, and computational guidance will enable the reader to apply Bayesian methods in their own pharmaceutical research.

Health economics is concerned with the study of the cost-effectiveness of health care interventions. This book provides an overview of Bayesian methods for the analysis of health economic data. After an introduction to the basic economic concepts and methods of evaluation, it presents Bayesian statistics using accessible mathematics. The next chapters describe the theory and practice of cost-effectiveness analysis from a statistical viewpoint, and Bayesian computation, notably MCMC. The final chapter presents three detailed case studies covering cost-effectiveness analyses using individual data from clinical trials, evidence synthesis and hierarchical models and Markov models. The text uses WinBUGS and JAGS with datasets and code available online.

This book deals with the statistical analysis of the cost-effectiveness of medical treatments.