Colloquia Archive
Preference Measurement for Multistate Health Profiles
October 24, 2008
AbstractAccurate measurement of health outcomes is essential to guide health-related decisions, whether at the patient or population level. The QALY model has been found to inadequately capture preferences in multistate health profiles because it violates the additive independence assumption. Prof. Sainfort will present and empirically investigate a novel alternative. Ninety-two participants were asked to evaluate 24 hypothetical health scenarios described in the EQ-5D system. Preference for a future health state was found to depend on the current health state. Moreover, the nature and extent of the impact of the current health state characteristics in assessing preference for a future health state (i.e., direction of change, amplitude of change, and current health state duration) also depend on the level of the future health state. We discuss implications for medical decision making and cost-effectiveness studies.
BiographyDr. François Sainfort is the Mayo Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. Prior to joining the University of Minnesota, he was the Associate Dean for Interdisciplinary Programs in the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech, the Founder and Director of the Health Systems Institute, and the William W. George Professor of Health Systems at Georgia Tech and Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Sainfort’s research and expertise focus on medical decision making under risk and uncertainty, health outcomes modeling and measurement, health risk perception and assessment, health status assessment and monitoring, and health-related performance measurement and analysis. Dr. Sainfort has published over 140 refereed publications.
