Economic Evaluation of Programs or Interventions in the Management of Rheumatoid Arthritis: Defining a Consensus-based Reference Case

ANDREAS MAETZEL, PETER TUGWELL, MAARTEN BOERS, FRANCIS GUILLEMIN, DOUG COYLE, MIKE DRUMMOND, JOHN B. WONG, and SHERINE E. GABRIEL, on behalf of the OMERACT 6 Economics Research Group

ABSTRACT.

Improvement in the quality of economic evaluation could be documented as a consequence of international and national standardization efforts. One such effort is the recommendation that all economic evaluations in a given field produce findings in a standard format using a reference case. A reference case-based economic evaluation would adhere to specific settings with regard to outcomes, comparators, modeling techniques, and use of costs to facilitate comparisons among economic evaluations performed with the same objective. In the past, the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology Clinical Trials (OMERACT) consensus conference has successfully developed widely used, consensus-based outcome criteria for clinical improvement in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Present efforts are being directed at the development of recommendations for the type and format of a reference case economic evaluation for newly developed disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD). This document discusses 13 important elements that experts considered to be relevant for the development of a reference case recommendation for economic evaluations in RA. We provide the rationale for each element and discuss how each element has been addressed in published economic evaluations of DMARD. (J Rheumatol 2003;30:891-6)

Key Indexing Terms:

RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
ECONOMIC EVALUATION
STANDARDS

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From the Division of Clinical Decision Making and Health Care Research, Toronto General Research Institute, Toronto; Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Loeb Research Institute, Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa; Centre for Global Health, University of Ottawa, Institute of Population Health, Ottawa, Canada; Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, VU University Hospital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France; Centre for Health Economics, University of York, York, UK; Division of Clinical Decision Making, Informatics and Telemedicine, New England Medical Center, Boston, MA; Department of Health Sciences Research and Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.

A. Maetzel, MD, PhD, Division of Clinical Decision Making and Health Care Research, Toronto General Research Institute; P. Tugwell, MD, Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Loeb Research Institute, and Centre for Global Health, University of Ottawa, Institute of Population Health; M. Boers, MD, PhD, Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, VU University Hospital; F. Guillemin, MD, PhD, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine; D. Coyle, MSc, Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Loeb Research Institute; M. Drummond, PhD, Centre for Health Economics, University of York; J.B. Wong, MD, Division of Clinical Decision Making, Informatics and Telemedicine, New England Medical Center; S.E. Gabriel, MD, MSc, Department of Health Sciences Research and Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic.

Address reprint requests to Dr. A. Maetzel, Division of Clinical Decision Making, University Health Network, 200 Elizabeth Street, EN-232A, Toronto, Ontario M5G 2C4. E-mail: maetzel@uhnres.utoronto.ca

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