Enhancing the Evidence Base for Cost-Effectiveness Analysis in Ireland: Building Improvements from the Intervention-Specific to System-Wide Levels

Dr James O’Mahony is leading this Health Research Board Emerging Investigator Award (EIA) which contains three principal components. The first addresses the theoretical and empirical basis for the cost-effectiveness threshold used to determine if an intervention represents good value for money. The second examines common methodological problems in cost-effectiveness analyses of cancer screening and proposes a simple simulation modelling framework for use as a teaching and method research tool to help avoid such problems. The final component uses microsimulation modelling to simulate the cost-effectiveness of novel triage techniques for women tested as positive for the human papillomavirus (HPV) at primary screening and to investigate the potential of HPV self-sampling for the prevention of cervical cancer in women who do not typically participate in cervical screening. Dr O’Mahony is accompanied on the EIA programme by doctoral candidate Ms Yi-Shu Lin. James and Yi-Shu work conjunction with the CERVIVA multi-disciplinary research consortium, which investigates the diagnosis and prevention of HPV-associated cancers. Other research partners on the programme include participants based at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam.