Fellowship proposal in economics
Lead Research Organisation:
Newcastle University
Department Name: Inst of Health and Society
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Helen Mason (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications
Baker, R
(2010)
Connecting Q and surveys: a test of three methods to explore factor membership in a large sample
in Operant Subjectivity
Hartley, Jean; Donaldson, Cam; Skelcher, Chris; Wallace, Mike
(2008)
Managing to Improve Public Services
Mason H
(2009)
Modelling the monetary value of a QALY: a new approach based on UK data.
in Health economics
Mason H
(2011)
Understanding public preferences for prioritizing health care interventions in England: Does the type of health gain matter?
in Journal of Health Services Research & Policy
Mason H
(2008)
Willingness to pay for a QALY: past, present and future.
in Expert review of pharmacoeconomics & outcomes research
| Description | The health care budget in the UK is finite and, as such, decisions must be made about how best to allocate scarce resources. Cost effectiveness analysis and its overall summary measure of cost per quality adjusted life year (QALY) gained from an intervention is used as part of the decision as to which interventions are recommended for adoption by the NHS. The underlying QALY model assumes that all QALYs are equal no matter what the combination of quality of life and life expectancy. Within my PhD research I assessed the hypothesis that the monetary value of a QALY will vary according to whether the QALY gain arises because of a change in quality of life or a change in life expectancy. The contingent valuation method was used to estimate three different monetary values of a QALY which could be applied to three types of health care intervention; treatments which improve quality of life only, those which increase life expectancy only and treatments which are essentially life saving. In addition a Q methodology study was conducted to investigate what features of health care interventions, including the type of health gain, are important to members of the public in England in making priority-setting decisions and to understand why. The focus of this research grant was to produce outputs from my PhD research. The key objectives were to publish papers based on my thesis, disseminate the work more widely through conference presentations and develop new research proposals. This grant resulted in three papers directly from thesis chapters. These papers added new knowledge to the academic literature within health economics in two key areas; 1) new evidence on how the monetary value of a Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) differs depending on how the QALY gain arises; 2) The use of Q methodology as a means to determine the views of members of public. The three key papers published from my thesis have been cited 41 times. This research was presented at 3 academic conferences. |
| Exploitation Route | the results of my PhD work indicated that the monetary value of a QALY may differ depending on the type of health gain that arises. This idea was taken forward in a major European Council funded research grant (The EuroVaQ) project which survey approximately 38,000 respondents across Europe on the value of a QALY for different types of QALY gain. |
| Sectors | Healthcare |
| Description | My PhD research was the first to explicitly estimate and compare whether the monetary value of a Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) may differ depending on how the QALY gain arises. This research found that the type of QALY gain does matter to members of the public, in particular that people give higher value to interventions which are life saving. This has led to a further stream of work led by Dr Rachel Baker funded by the MRC (G1002324) on which I am a co-investigator, to examine the views of members of the public on the provision of End of Life Care for people with a terminal illness in the UK. |
| Sector | Healthcare |
| Impact Types | Economic,Policy & public services |