Methods development

NICE Methods Guide and Technical Support Documents

NICE regularly updates its “Guide to the methods of technology appraisal” and the DSU is pivotal in assisting this process.

NICE Methods Guide update (DSU work)

NICE also seeks to promote the improvement of health technology assessment methodology and the DSU has been commissioned by NICE to produce a series of Technical Support Documents. These documents provide detailed guidance on appropriate methodology for specific issues in health technology assessment and economic evaluation.

Technical support documents (TSDs)

Other methods work

The DSU has also undertaken several pieces of important research to tackle specific methodological issues. Below the topics are broken down by year.

2020–2023

• An investigation into methods for demonstrating when a generic, preference-based measure of health-related quality of life misrepresents health gain (2023)
• Estimating EQ-5D by age and sex for the UK (2022)
• Valuing child and adolescent-specific preference-based measures (2021)
• CHTE2020 qualitative evidence (2020)
• CHTE2020 sources and synthesis of evidence (2020)
• Future unrelated costs (2020)
• MVH related QoL when sufficient data is not directly observed (2020)
• Modelling carer health-related quality of life (2020)
• Utility values in children (2020)

2015–2019

• Accelerated Access Collaborative (2019)
• Cost minimisation analysis (2019)
• End of life (2019)
• Mapping EQ-5D-5L to 3L (2019)
• Mapping for Technology Appraisals (2019)
• Modelling carer health-related quality of life (2019)
• Utility values in children (2019)
• Comparing the EQ-5D-3L and 5L (2018)
• EQ-5D-5L (2017)
• Real world data (2016)
• Managed entry agreements (2016)
• Quality assurance of models which inform NICE Technology Appraisals
• Economic Mapping of Utilities (EMU) – ALDVMM: A command for fitting Adjusted Limited Dependent Variable Mixture Models to EQ-5D (2015)

2010–2014

• Quality of life in cancer (2014)
• Assessing technologies that are not cost effective at a zero price (2014)
• Value based pricing/assessment (2012-13)
• End of life (December 2012)
• Mapping of EQ-5D (2012-13)
• Progression-free survival and overall survival (PFS-OS) (August 2012)
• Regression methods (2012-13)
• Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) (February 2011)
• Crossover and survival (2010)
• EQ5D (November 2010)

2005–2009

• End of life (2009)
• QALY weighting (December 2009)
• Crossover and survival (July 2009)
• Value of innovation (May 2009)
• Software review (July 2008)
• Review of the single technology appraisal (STA) process (January 2008)
• Value of information (June 2005)