Health Economic Evaluation

About our expertise

Our team has extensive experience in, but is not limited to, the following disciplines:

  • Health economic evaluations of pharmaceuticals, medical technologies, surgical interventions, diagnostics, AI/prediction models, public health and appropriate care interventions;
  • Economic evaluations alongside clinical trials;
  • Model-based economic evaluations;
  • Early health economic evaluations;
  • Methodological research to improve health economic evaluations;
  • Cost-of-illness studies;
  • Policy analyses.

Health economic evaluations alongside clinical or observational research

PI: dr. Miriam van der Meulen, email: M.P.vanderMeulen-16@umcutrecht.nl 

We perform and design end-to-end health economic evaluations for clinical trials or observational studies performed in several disease areas and types of interventions. We perform health economic evaluations before and alongside the trial by performing data-analysis on (prospectively) collected healthcare resource use and quality of life. If applicable, we use these data in a decision-analytical model to extrapolate trial findings. As we perform a multitude of these projects yearly, we also see opportunities for methodological improvements in our field. Currently, we perform methodological research such as methods to perform HEE analyses alongside multinational trials, data collection of healthcare resource use in (national or hospital) claim data and methods to collect utility values of temporary health effects.

Health economic evaluations of appropriate care interventions

PI: dr. Miriam van der Meulen, email: M.P.vanderMeulen-16@umcutrecht.nl

Appropriate care interventions encompass a wide range of interventions, including preventive interventions, “less is more” strategies, diagnostic or AI-based tools, care personalization and value-based healthcare. What these interventions share is their focus on optimalisation of existing care. Their health economic evaluations also face common challenges, an increasing reliance on observational data and the inherent complexity of the interventions themselves. Our research team has developed expertise to address these methodological challenges, and we are currently involved in evaluating several appropriate care interventions.

Regenerative Medicines

PI: dr. Renske ten Ham, email: R.M.T.tenHam-2@UMCUtrecht.nl

Regenerative Medicines (RM) include organoids, gene and cell therapies, organ-on-a-chip, 3D-bioprinting. The Regenerative Medicines Centre Utrecht is Europe’s biggest RM research and development cluster. The RM team within the HEE-group strives to increase translation of RM and (academic) gene and cell-based therapies towards implementation in healthcare services. In doing so our research focusses on payment models, methods, development cost, (early) economic evaluations and business models. We aim to contribute to better understanding of the fit between innovative therapies and existing development frameworks. This is not only relevant for RM but also for future biomedical innovations.

Early Phase Analyses & Oncology

PI: dr. Chris van Lieshout, email: C.vanLieshout@UMCUtrecht.nl

As part of Oncode Accelerator (OA), we investigate the methodology and potential impact of early health economic analysis in early phase adaptive trials in oncology. Beyond the research in OA we perform evaluations of diagnostics and interventions in oncology across all stages of development and implementation. In addition, we research the broader methods, value, and applications of early health economics during health innovation development, which are wider applicable across other disease areas.