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BELGIAN GUIDELINES FOR ECONOMIC EVALUATIONS: SECOND EDITION

Part of: Special Collection - Methods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2015

Nancy Thiry ,
Mattias Neyt ,
Stefaan Van De Sande  and
Irina Cleemput
Nancy Thiry
Affiliation:
Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre (KCE), Nancy.Thiry@kce.fgov.be
Mattias Neyt
Affiliation:
Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre (KCE), Nancy.Thiry@kce.fgov.be
Stefaan Van De Sande
Affiliation:
Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre (KCE), Nancy.Thiry@kce.fgov.be
Irina Cleemput
Affiliation:
Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre (KCE), Nancy.Thiry@kce.fgov.be
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Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study was to present the updated methodological guidelines for economic evaluations of healthcare interventions (drugs, medical devices, and other interventions) in Belgium.

Methods: The update of the guidelines was performed by three Belgian health economists following feedback from users of the former guidelines and personal experience. The updated guidelines were discussed with a multidisciplinary team consisting of other health economists, assessors of reimbursement request files, representatives of Belgian databases and representatives of the drugs and medical devices industry. The final document was validated by three external validators that were not involved in the previous discussions.

Results: The guidelines give methodological guidance for the following components of an economic evaluation: literature review, perspective of the evaluation, definition of the target population, choice of the comparator, analytic technique and study design, calculation of costs, valuation of outcomes, definition of the time horizon, modeling, handling uncertainty and discounting. We present a reference case that can be considered as the minimal requirement for Belgian economic evaluations of health interventions.

Conclusions: These guidelines will improve the methodological quality, transparency and uniformity of the economic evaluations performed in Belgium. The guidelines will also provide support to the researchers and assessors performing or evaluating economic evaluations.

Keywords

GuidelinesEconomic evaluationsBelgiumReimbursement
Type
Methods
Information
International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care , Volume 30 , Issue 6 , December 2014 , pp. 601 - 607
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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