Health Economic Considerations in the Conduct of CER

• Activity Number: 457
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 7, 2013 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Biometrics Section
• Author(s): Richard J Willke*+
• Companies: Pfizer Primary Care
• Keywords: heterogeneity of treatment effect ; finite mixture models ; quantile treatment regression ; comparative effectiveness research

Abstract

An important consideration in the conduct of comparative effectiveness research (CER) is the presence of heterogeneity of treatment effect (HTE), which can be based innately in physiological differences but also may be due to economic and behavioral differences among patients. In some cases these differences can be characterized as distinct latent classes, and estimated via finite mixture models. In others, a primary difference may along a continuum of some observed characteristic and estimated via quantile regression models. Both approaches are becoming more common in the health economics literature, to capture either physiological or behavioral economic or other differences driving HTE. The similarities and differences of these approaches are compared and illustrated with examples from both the published literature and an analysis of administrative claims data for COPD patients.