About the Personalized Medicine: Research Challenge Methodology Forum

11 – 12 January 2012
Ottawa, Ontario

The IHE has established a series of methodologic forums with the intent of identifying and addressing major methodological challenges in informing policies and decisions around the funding and use of health technologies, in partnership with its private and public stakeholders that are involved in the production of evidence and use of assessment. In January 2012 the IHE conducted a workshop as part of a Health Canada/CIHR national event specifically looking at Economic evaluation in the area of personalized medicine.

Health economic evaluation is used to examine the cost and consequences of health interventions or programs. Economic evaluation is increasingly used to inform decision processes as a policy tool to inform health policy including reimbursement decisions. The concept of “personalised medicine” in health is garnering increased attention. Personalised medicine can be defined as the tailoring of preventive, diagnostic, or therapeutic interventions to the characteristics of an individual or population. This may involve genetic or laboratory biomarker information. The increasing and importance of economic evaluation in informing reimbursement decisions raises questions as to whether existing approaches need to be improved or changed to accommodate the evaluation of personalized interventions.

Standards for the conduct of economic evaluation have already been developed, but increased attention toward personalized medicine interventions may create new challenges for those tasked with evaluating the economic impact of introducing personalized medicine interventions. It is important that standards for evaluation are consistently applied, in order to inform decision making in a consistent manner, and achieve fair and equitable access to health technologies. The purpose of this session was to discuss challenges that may arise when evaluating personalised medicine interventions and propose strategies to overcome some specific examples.

Download Forum Summary 
IHE Methodology Forum: Personalized Medicine – Research Challenge – Health Economics Methodology Forum Summary

The specific objectives of this concurrent session/workshop are to:

1. Explore issues relevant to economic evaluation of personalized medicine
2. Present research in the form of case examples and from those who have evaluated personalized medicine interventions.
3. Discuss the strengths and limitations of proposed methods options and their implementation.

Followup Roundtable Discussion

A followup workshop of invited stakeholders occurred to discuss policy and implementation issues in May 2012 – Personalized Medicine – Policy Gaps and System Readiness Roundtable.

Related Methodology Forums:

• Prioritizing Methodological Research in Evaluation of Health Technologies (23 – 24 September 2010)
• Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement in Alberta: Potential of the EQ-5D Symposium (18 – 19 October 2012)

The methodology forum series is supported through funding and in kind support from the Alberta Government, the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH), the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, and Eli Lilly, and AstraZeneca.