8th Annual International Meeting: Short Courses

ISPOR Short Course Educational Objectives:
ISPOR Short Courses are provided to enhance the development of individuals involved in pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research or who use this research in health care decision-making. Faculties, who have published in the specific discipline, present these courses. Each participant receives a course syllabus/workbook and an ISPOR Certificate of Completion. The participant will learn new methodologies and outcomes research techniques, improve skills in the specific course subject selected, and be able to apply learned skills to his/her specific work environment.

Introduction to Pharmacoeconomics

Faculty: Lorne Basskin PharmD, President, Trinka Publications, Cooper City, FL, USA

Course Description: This one-day short course is designed to teach clinicians and new researchers how to incorporate pharmacoeconomics into study design and data analysis. Participants will learn how to collect and calculate the costs of different alternatives, determine the economic impact of clinical outcomes, and how to identify, track and assign costs to different types of health care resources used. The development of economic protocols and data collection sheets will be discussed. Different pharmacoeconomic models and techniques will be demonstrated and practiced in lectures and case studies. These include cost-minimization, cost-of-illness, cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit, and cost-utility analysis. Decision analysis, sensitivity analysis, and discounting, will all be demonstrated and practiced. Participants will also learn to compare and evaluate interventions such as drugs, devices and clinical services. This course is suitable for those with little or some experience with pharmacoeconomics.

Advanced Statistical Methods for Retrospective Database Analyses (8 hours)

Faculty: Thomas E. Delea MBA, Senior Consultant, PAI, Brookline, MA, USA; Derek Weycker PhD, Senior Consultant, PAI, Brookline, MA, USA.

Course Description: Large administrative claims databases provide a unique opportunity to examine retrospectively the effects of drug use on clinical and economic outcomes in "real world" settings. This course will examine analytical approaches that may be used for estimating the relationship between drug use and clinical and economic outcomes using administrative databases, as well as the challenges associated with such analyses, in particular confounding (i.e., selection bias) and censoring. Analytical approaches to be covered will include OLS, logistic, and Poisson regression, survival analysis, and the Kaplan-Meier Sample Average (KMSA) method. Also discussed will be the use of propensity scores, instrumental variables, and nonparametric bootstrapping, as well as methods for selection of model covariates and testing of model assumptions. Course participants will be required to apply these methods in formal classroom exercises. This advanced-level course will assume participants have knowledge of statistical methods and/or econometrics and experience in the analysis of administrative claims databases.

Prospective Economic Trials: Computer-assisted Applications

Faculty: Andrew Briggs PhD, Health Economics Research Centre, University of Oxford, Institute of Health Sciences, Oxford, UK; John Cook PhD, Director, Merck Research Laboratories, Blue Bell, PA, USA; Henry Glick PhD, Health Economist, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Course Description: Randomized controlled trials are the accepted standard for demonstrating the efficacy and safety of new pharmaceuticals. They also can be a useful venue for collecting economic data. This course will provide participants with an overview of methodologic and practical issues surrounding economic data collection that is "piggybacked" onto otherwise-traditional randomized controlled trials, including protocol development, data collection, and data analysis. The course also will consider circumstances under which such studies do not provide an appropriate setting for collecting "real-world" economic data, and will discuss key aspects of clinical trials that are conducted specifically to inform economic decision making ("pragmatic clinical trials") as well as issues in the design and conduct of these types of investigations. Course participants will be asked to solve specific problems in the design of trial-based economic investigations. Participants will also use computer software to analyze data from a real prospective study. This course is designed for persons with a basic knowledge of and familiarity with clinical trial methodology as well as techniques of economic investigation. Each participant must bring a laptop computer.