OBJECTIVES

: In response to the growing interest on patient-centeredness in healthcare decision-making, health technology assessment (HTA) bodies and regulatory agencies are exerting significant efforts to involve patients in decision process in more systematic way through quantitative studies assessing patient preferences (PPs). This study aimed to investigate how quantitative PP studies can inform healthcare decision-making.

METHODS

: A systematic search of PubMed identified publications relating to PP elicitation studies and their application. Studies reporting the use of quantitative PP methods to inform HTAs and benefit-risk assessments (BRAs) were considered. No time-horizon nor geographical scope restrictions were applied. Included records were critically appraised and classified based on the disease area, the medicinal technology evaluated, the quantitative method applied, and the attributes assessed. The decision-making processes were also retrieved.

RESULTS

Most of the studies were conducted in Europe (13/22). The remaining studies were conducted in the US (8/22) and in Australia (1/22). The studies covered various disease areas: metabolic (27%), rare diseases (18%), oncology (14%), central nervous system (14%), auto-immune (9%), gastro-intestinal (2%), kidney (5%), and periodontal disorders (5%). The medicinal technologies evaluated were mostly drugs (86%), less frequently devices (5%) and medical interventions (9%). PPs were mostly elicited through discrete choice experiment (DCE) (77%). Best-worst scaling (18%), multi-criteria decision analysis (9%), and visual analogue scale (5%) methods were less commonly used. Five major attributes were assessed: treatment benefits and risks (95%), health related quality of life (32%), treatment cost (27%), and treatment convenience (59%) including mode and frequency of administration as well as treatment duration. PP information collected aimed mostly at informing BRAs (58%) and to a lesser extent at informing HTA decisions (32%), rarely both (9%).

CONCLUSIONS

: DCEs are increasingly used for PP elicitation. Informing decision-making entities on patient trade-offs between treatment benefits and risks may become an interesting tool for outcomes prioritization and patient-centered decision-making.