PHYSICIANS’ AND PHARMACISTS’ PREFERENCES FOR HEMOPHILIA TREATMENT EVALUATED BY CONJOINT ANALYSIS
Author(s)
Scalone L1, Monzini MS1, Villa M2, Gringeri A3, Mannucci PM3, Mantovani LG1, 1 University of Milan, Milan, Italy; 2 National Research Council – Institute of Biomedical Technologies, Segrate (Milano), Italy; 3 University of Milan and IRCCS Maggiore Hospital, Milan, Italy
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the preferences of physicians and pharmacists toward products used for replacement therapy. METHODS: This study investigates preferences on hemophilia care in 69 physicians and 58 pharmacists using conjoint analysis, a technique for establishing the relative importance of different characteristics in the provision of a good or service. Attributes and levels were: perceived viral safety (as that provided by highly purified double inactivation plasma derived versus recombinant concentrates), risk of inhibitor development (1/4, 1/6, 1/10 PUP’s), factor infusion frequency on prophylaxis (thrice, twice, once a week), pharmaceutical dosage form (lyophilized material or a ready-to-use solution), way of distribution (home, office pharmacy, hospital) and price. RESULTS: Excluding pharmaceutical dosage form for physicians and office pharmacy delivery for pharmacists, all attributes considered tested important to respondents. Physicians showed a strong preference toward both outcome variables (viral safety, risk of development of inhibitors) and process variables (distribution, infusion frequency) while pharmacists showed a strong preference only for outcome variables and unexpectedly not toward way of distribution. CONCLUSIONS: Our study is the first to apply conjoint analysis to establish preferences of physicians and pharmacists in hemophilia replacement therapy. This study provided evidence of the usefulness of conjoint analysis in plan optimal health care through the elicitation of physicians’ and pharmacists’ preferences to health care, even in the particular context of hemophilia management.
Conference/Value in Health Info
2004-10, ISPOR Europe 2004, Hamburg, Germany
Value in Health, Vol. 7, No. 6 (November/December 2004)
Code
PBR8
Topic
Patient-Centered Research
Topic Subcategory
Stated Preference & Patient Satisfaction
Disease
Systemic Disorders/Conditions