Sue Ward BA (Durham)

HEDS, ScHARR
The University of Sheffield
Regent Court
30 Regent Street
Sheffield
S1 4DA
UK

Office:

Tel: (+44) (0)114 222 0816
Fax: (+44) (0)114 272 4095

E-mail: s.e.ward@sheffield.ac.uk

Biography

I graduated with an Economics degree from Durham University. After working in marketing and operational research with the electricity industry I moved to the University of Sheffield in 1994. My main area of interest is economic evaluation in health care, with a particular focus on economic modelling of cancer therapies.

Economic evaluation in cancer
I have been a major contributor to the HEDS section input to rapid review projects in the cancer field for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), including the cost effectiveness of gemcitabine in pancreatic cancer, oral drugs for advanced colorectal cancer and hormonal therapies and taxanes for early breast cancer. I have also led a series of economic evaluations of new guidance for the management and treatment of a range of cancers (including upper gastro-intestinal cancers, haematological, cancers and breast cancer) for the Department of Health in England and Wales, along with an economic evaluation of the recent guidance on supportive and palliative care. In addition I have been involved in a series of industry funded projects for cancer treatment in the field of chronic myeloid leukaemia, gastro-intestinal stromal tumours and renal cell carcinoma and worked on a HTA project relating to the cost effectiveness of enhanced imaging techniques for assessment of axillary lymph node metastases.

Coronary heart disease
Developing on work undertaken in 1997 and 1998 on the roles of statins in coronary heart disease and the development of a decision support tool for evaluation of alternative policies on HMG Co-A Reductase Inhibitor (Statin) prescribing, I led a Health Technology Assessment for statins in the prevention of cardiovascular events.

Work in other disease areas
I have also managed a number of projects in non-cancer related areas, including a series of industry-funded projects evaluating the use of a new treatment for Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Research interests

My research interests are:

• Modelling in health care
• Economic evaluation of cancer therapies
• Economic evaluation of therapies for the prevention of coronary heart disease

Teaching interests

I deliver lectures on the critical appraisal of economic evaluations on the MSc Health Economics and Decision Modelling.

Current projects

I am currently working on the following projects:

• Cost effectiveness of second line treatments for chronic myeloid leukaemia
• Cost effectiveness of lapatinib in breast cancer
• The economic impact of avoidable admissions in palliative care
• Systematic review of utilities for breast cancer

Key publications

• Ara R, Rafia R, Ward SE, Wierzbicki AS, Reynolds TM, Rees A, Pandor A.
  Are intensive lipid-lowering regimens an optimal economic strategy in patients with ACS? An acute and chronic perspective. Expert Rev Pharmacoecon Outcomes Res. 2009 Oct;9(5):423-33.
• Jassem J, Carroll C, Ward S, Simpson E, Hind D. The clinical efficacy of cytoxic agents in locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer patients pretreated with an anythracycline and a taxane: A systematic review. European Journal of Cancer a.2009.05.035
• Bansback N, Ara R, Ward S, Anis A, Choi HK. Statin therapy in rheumatoid arthritis: a cost-effectiveness and value-of-information analysis. Pharmacoeconomics 2009;27(1):25-37.
• Ward S, Lloyd-Jones M, Pandor A, Holmes M, Ara R, Ryan A et al. Statins in the prevention of cardiovascular events. Health Technol Assess 2007;11(14).
• Ward S, Simpson E, Davis S, Hind D, Rees A, Wilkinson A. Taxanes for the adjuvant treatment of early breast cancer. Health Technol Assess 2007;11(40).
• Tappenden P, Chilcott J, Ward S, Eggington S, Hind D, Hummel S. Methodological issues in the economic analysis of cancer treatments. European Journal of Cancer 2006;42 (17):2867-75.