In October 2012, the Disease Control Priorities Network – Department of Global Health at the University of Washington hosted an economics methods meeting for DCP3 collaborators and experts in economic methodology. The meeting presented preliminary examples of extended cost-effectiveness analysis (ECEA), a new economic approach being developed for DCP3. ECEA enhances traditional cost-effectiveness analysis in several important respects. It reveals the distributional and financial protection impacts of the full array of policy changes that are employed in the health system to improve health access and outcomes.
Meeting participants discussed two different approaches to conducting ECEAs – an equation-based model and an agent-based model. Both models are in development by economic and modeling staff of the DCP3 and will be shared widely with DCP3 contributors and collaborators as part of the capacity-building activities of DCPN. The two models present different advantages and have different data and analytical requirements. Examples of model results for several policies were presented and compared. They were expanded TB treatment, rotavirus immunization, a tobacco tax increase, and epilepsy treatment. All examples were based on Indian data. The group was able to have a fruitful discussion on how to maximize the impact of this new analytical tool. The meetings also highlighted the process currently under way for gathering the data that will feed in to the full range of policy changes to be analyzed. The meeting provided the foundation for an ongoing discussion on how ECEAs will best serve DCP3 moving forward.
Click here for a complete meeting agenda.
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| DCP3 contributors and investigators discuss economic modeling. | CDDEP Research Analysts Abby Colson and Arindam Nandi enjoy a short break during the DCP3 Economic Methods meeting. |