Health Economics Unit presence at the 37th EuroQol Plenary Meeting 2020
The Health Economics Unit (HEU) had a strong presence at the 37th EuroQol Plenary Meeting held virtually during 16-17 September. This year, only ten papers were selected for presentation and in-depth discussion at the live session. HEU was well represented, with three of the ten selected papers having HEU authors across a range of topics spanning valuation of EQ-5D-5L, large-scale collection of EQ-5D-5L and valuation of the new EQ-HWB.
Included in the programme was a paper by Tianxin Pan and Prof Nancy Devlin comparing the value sets of EQ-5D-5L and the PROMIS-Preference Score (PROPr). This work compared the characteristics of the two value sets and highlighted that they differ systematically, which has potential implications for their use in Health Technology Assessment process. Tianxin responded to the comments from the discussant, Dr Ernest Law, and questions from the audience on behalf of the research team, including collaborators from University of Technology Sydney, Curtin University, University of Pittsburgh. This study was funded by the EuroQol Research Foundation.
Prof Nancy Devlin was also co-author of a longitudinal study of health-related quality of life among different patient groups in Swedish National Quality Registers, with collaborators from Karolinska Institute. Nancy also contributed to the conference by acting as a discussant on a study evaluating the impact of COVID-19 on health inequities from New York as measured by EQ-5D-5L.
Dr Tessa Peasgood’s work on a pilot qualitative study on valuing the EQ-HWB was also presented. The EQ-HWB is a new classification system that covers nine aspects of health and wellbeing, taken from a larger 25 question instrument. This study is an important starting point to support the testing and modification of the EQ-VT valuation protocol for use in valuing the new EQ-HWB classifier. This study was a joint work with collaborators from The University of Sheffield, and it was funded by the Medical Research Council and the EuroQol Research Foundation.
The EuroQol Group Association has been holding annual Plenary Meetings since its inception in 1987. During the scientific sessions, members and co-workers of the EuroQol Group present papers on topics that include methodological/valuation aspects of EQ-5D; development of EQ-5D versions in different languages and the use of EQ-5D in health population surveys.