2019 SPRING NEWSLETTER
Director's Letter
With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, our Center has developed the Global Health Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (GHCEA) Registry . The Registry contains over 700 cost per disability-adjusted life year (DALY) averted studies, most of which (78%) focus on low and middle income countries. 

Recently, my CEVR colleague, Dan Ollendorf, PhD, queried the database to see what is known about the cost-effectiveness of strategies to address the World Health Organization’s list of 10 key threats to global health, including air pollution & climate change; non-communicable diseases (NCDs); global influenza pandemic; antimicrobial resistance; and vaccine hesitancy. 
 
The search highlighted that the evidence base on the topic continues to grow: as an example, there are now 71 cost/DALY averted studies on diagnostics or treatments to address antimicrobial resistance. However, the data also reveals many gaps. For example, there has been little published on the cost-effectiveness of strategies to address air pollution or the effects of climate change, and no publications in this literature address vaccine hesitancy. There is an urgent need for new research to understand what works to address key threats to global health, and at what cost.

Peter Neumann, ScD
Director, Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health
Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies
Tufts Medical Center
News
Dan Ollendorf, PhD, has been appointed Chair of the Health Technology Assessment International (HTAi) Global Policy Forum. The Forum is an annual symposium to discuss a major policy topic and develop a set of actionable recommendations to move the field forward.  
Paige Lin, PhD , presented "Prioritizing global health resources: using cost-effectiveness analysis" at the National Taiwan University.
Funded by a three year grant from the PhRMA Foundation, CEVR has established a new Center: The Center for Enhanced Value Assessment (CEVA) . CEVA’s mission is to explore the development of additional elements of value that reach beyond the cost-per-quality-adjusted life year (QALY) measurement.
Peter Neumann, ScD, and David Kim, PhD, presented at the 2019 Prince Mahidol Award Conference (PMAC) in Bangkok, Thailand which focused on the political economy of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
10 academic, government, and non-profit institutions now subscribe to the Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) Registry data, including:
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  • Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program
  • International Decision Support Initiative
  • Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
  • McMaster University
  • Universidad De Castilla-La Mancha
  • University of New Hampshire
  • University of Southern California
  • University of Toronto
  • University of Washington
Family Spillover Effects
PharmacoEconomics recently published a special Themed Issue: Measuring Family Spillover Effects of Illness featuring two articles by CEVR researchers.
In her new study Parent Preferences for Health Outcomes Associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders, Tara Lavelle, PhD, found autism spectrum disorder has a statistically significant impact on children’s health-related quality of life, as measured using parent-reported health utilities. On average having a child with autism was not significantly associated with spillover effects on parent health utility, but there were statistically significant spillover effects among parents of children categorized as most severe. 
In her study Family and Caregiver Spillover Efects in Cost‑Utility Analyses of Alzheimer’s Disease Interventions, Paige Lin, PhD, found that nearly two-thirds of Alzheimer’s cost-utility analyses (CUAs) incorporated some caregiver costs, but considered caregiver health impacts less often. The value of treatments for Alzheimer’s disease may be underestimated without considering caregiver spillover effects.
Global Health Updates
The Global Health Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (GHCEA) Registry has just launched a new dashboard feature that streamlines key facts and figures, allowing users the option to view the dashboard through the lenses of (1) disease, (2) country, or (3) intervention.

Each dashboard view (below) features topical data on the volume of studies and range of findings, along with visuals for the distribution of results geographically, by type of intervention, and over time – all of which are downloadable. 
New Publications


  • CEVR authors conducted an outreach campaign to identify authors willing to submit cost-effectiveness models to our open-source clearinghouse; the results suggest the field has a long way to go before sharing of these models is a consistent practice. 
Database Updates
The Global Health Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (GHCEA) Registry has been updated to include all cost-per-DALY averted studies published through 2018. The Registry now includes:
  • 709 Articles (60 new studies added)
  • 5,656 Ratios (338 new ratios added)
  • 1,365 Weights (125 new weights added)
Featured Publications
Butt T, Liu GG, Kim DD, Neumann PJ. Taking stock of cost-effectiveness analysis of healthcare in China. BMJ Global Health 2019;4(3):1–9.

Chambers JD, Pope EF, Wilkinson CL, Neumann PJ. Discrepancies between FDA-required labeling and evidence that payers cite in drug coverage policies. Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy 2018;24(12):1240–6.

Kim DD, Trikalinos TA, Wong JB. Leveraging cumulative network meta-analysis and value of information analysis to understand the evolving value of medical research. Medical Decision Making 2019;39(2):119–29.

Kim DD, Cohen JT, Wong JB, Mohit B, Fendrick AM, Kent DM, Neumann PJ. Targeted incentive programs for lung cancer screening can improve population health and economic efficiency. Health Affairs 2019;38(1):60–7.
Featured Blogs
CEVR Team Updates
Rachel Lai, BA
Research Assistant

Rachel, who recently joined the CEVR team, assists in maintaining the Specialty Drug Evidence and Coverage database.

Rachel graduated from Tufts University in 2019 with a BA in Community Health and is currently in the Tufts MPH program concentrating in Health Services Management and Policy.
Congratulations to CEVR researcher, Flora Berklein, MPH, who
completed her first Boston Marathon in an impressive time of 3:14:38!
The CEVR team after this year's Annual Methods, Policy,
and Data Symposium on April 11, 2019.
CEVR is hiring a Research Assistant! 
The RA position supports research activities involving health economics and cost-effectiveness analyses including but not limited to review and summary of literature, data preparation and analysis, and assisting with the preparation of manuscripts and presentations. The position requires strong writing and organizational skills. The RA must be able to work independently and handle competing demands in order to meet project deadlines. The RA will be supervised by CEVR faculty and senior research staff.
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