Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T05:56:47.355Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Identifying economic evaluations for health technology assessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2010

Julie Glanville  and
Suzy Paisley
Julie Glanville
Affiliation:
York Health Economics Consortium
Suzy Paisley
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objectives and Methods: Health technology assessment (HTA) often requires the identification and review of economic evaluations and models. This study surveys the available specific and general resources to search to identify economic evaluations. It also provides information on efficient searching of those resources and comments on the current evidence-base.

Results: Published checklists recommend searching for economic evaluations in specific information resources which collect economic evaluations such as NHS EED and HEED, followed by top-up searches of large biomedical bibliographic databases (such as MEDLINE and EMBASE). Other resources such as the HTA and DARE databases can yield reports of economic evaluations. Searches within NHS EED and HEED can be made more efficient by using database-specific search options. Searches within large biomedical databases such as MEDLINE and EMBASE require the use of economic search terms called search filters. Search filters are highly sensitive, retrieving most economic evaluations, but suffer from low precision returning many irrelevant records which need to be assessed.

Conclusions: It is relatively easy to identify rapidly a high proportion of economic evaluations but more research is required to improve the efficiency of this process. There are key high yield resources to search but more evidence is required on their overlap and unique contribution to searches. The value of other resources, particularly those providing access to gray literature, should be explored. Research into efficient retrieval requires clear definitions of economic evaluations to allow comparison across studies.

Keywords

Cost-benefit analysisDatabasesBibliographicInformation storage and retrievalSensitivity and specificity
Type
THEME SECTION: INFORMATION RETRIEVAL FOR HTA
Information
International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , October 2010 , pp. 436 - 440
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Alton, V, Eckerlund, I, Norlund, A. Health economic evaluations: How to find them. Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 2006;22:512–571.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2. Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health. Grey matters: A practical search tool for evidence-based medicine. Ottawa: Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health; 2008. http://www.cadth.ca/index.php/en/cadth/products/grey-matters (accessed September 3, 2010).Google Scholar
3. Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health. Guidelines for the economic evaluation of health technologies: Canada. 3rd ed. Ottawa: Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health; 2006.Google Scholar
4. Centre for Reviews and Dissemination. How are studies identified for NHS EED [Internet]. York: Centre for Reviews and Dissemination; 2009. http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/crdweb/html/help.htm (accessed September 3, 2010).Google Scholar
5. Centre for Reviews and Dissemination. Systematic Reviews: CRD's Guidance for Undertaking Reviews in Healthcare. 3rd ed. York: Centre for Reviews and Dissemination; 2009. http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/pdf/Systematic_Reviews.pdf (accessed September 3, 2010).Google Scholar
6. CODECS [database on the Internet]. Paris: Collège des Economistes de la Santé; 2009. http://infodoc.inserm.fr/codecs/codecsanglais.nsf/(Web+English+Startup+Page)?OpenForm (accessed September 3, 2010).Google Scholar
7. Cost-effectiveness Analysis (CEA) Registry [database on the Internet]. Medford, MA: Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health, Tufts University; 2009. https://research.tufts-nemc.org/cear/default.aspx (accessed September 3, 2010).Google Scholar
8. Glanville, J, Kaunelis, D, Mensinkai, S. How well do search filters perform in identifying economic evaluations in MEDLINE and EMBASE. Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 2009;25:522–529.Google Scholar
9. HEED: Health Economics Evaluation Database [database on the Internet]. Wiley Interscience; 2009. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/book/10.1002/9780470510933 (accessed September 3, 2010).Google Scholar
10. Ho, C, Li, H, Noorani, H, et al. Appendix 2: Literature search strategy for cost-effectiveness studies. In: Implantable cardiac defibrillators for primary prevention of sudden cardiac death in high risk patients: A meta-analysis of clinical efficacy, and a review of cost-effectiveness and psychosocial issues [Technology report no 81]. Ottawa: Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH); 2007. http://www.cadth.ca/media/pdf/332_ICD_tr_appendices_e.pdf (accessed September 3, 2010).Google Scholar
11. Kristensen, FB, Sigmund, H, eds. Health technology assessment handbook. Copenhagen: Danish Centre for Health Technology Assessment; 2008.Google Scholar
12. Macpherson, K, Boynton, J. Economics filter [Internet]. York: InterTASC Information Specialists’ SubGroup; 2009. http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/intertasc/econ3.htm (accessed September 3, 2010).Google Scholar
13. McKinlay, RJ, Wilczynski, NL, Haynes, RB. Optimal search strategies for detecting cost and economic studies in EMBASE. BMC Health Serv Res. 2006;6:67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
14. National Institute for Health and Clinical Effectiveness. Single technology appraisal (STA). Specification for manufacturer/sponsor submission of evidence. London: NICE; 2009. http://www.nice.org.uk/media/4D9/DD/ManufacturerConsulteeTemplateOct09.doc (accessed September 3, 2010).Google Scholar
15. NHS Economic Evaluation Database [database on the Internet]. York: Centre for Reviews and Dissemination; 2009. http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/crdweb/ (accessed September 3, 2010).Google Scholar
16. PEDE: Paediatric Economic Database Evaluation [database on the Internet]. Toronto: Hospital for Sick Children; 2008. http://pede.ccb.sickkids.ca/pede/index.jsp (accessed September 3, 2010).Google Scholar
17. Royle, P, Waugh, N. Literature searching for clinical and cost-effectiveness studies used in health technology assessment reports carried out for the National Institute for Clinical Excellence appraisal system. Health Technol Assess. 2003;7:1–61.Google Scholar
18. Sassi, F, Archard, L, McDaid, D. Searching literature databases for health care economic evaluations: How systematic can we afford to be? Med Care. 2002;40:387–394.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
19. Shemilt, I, Mugford, M, Byford, S, et al. Chapter 15: Incorporating economics evidence. In: Higgins, JPT, Green, S, eds. Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions Version 5.0.1. updated September 2008). The Cochrane Collaboration; 2008. http://www.cochrane-handbook.org (accessed September 3, 2010).Google Scholar
20. Wilczynski, NL, Haynes, RB, Lavis, JN, et al. Optimal search strategies for detecting health services research studies in MEDLINE. CMAJ. 2004;171:1179–1185.Google Scholar