A review of economic evaluations of genetic testing services and interventions (2004–2009)

Abstract

Abstract:To review economic evaluations of genetic interventions published between 2004 and 2009 and assess the quality of the identified studies, we searched for economic evaluations of genetic testing and interventions published between 2004 and 2009. Studies that met inclusion criteria were reviewed and their quality then assessed using a validated instrument-the Quality of Health Economic Studies. Of 54 articles identified, 26 met study criteria and were included in the review. These studies span a number of clinical indications, genetic tests, and interventions, but the majority (92%) focuses on genetic interventions for preventive screening and increasing treatment efficacy. The mean quality score for the reviewed studies was 89.8. Comparison of the quality of different study types revealed that cost-utility studies and studies that used a combined decision tree and Markov model had the highest mean quality scores. Clear statements regarding bias, funding source, and study perspective were commonly lacking in the reviewed studies. Although the reviewed studies were of fairly high quality, we found Quality of Health Economic Studies methodology for grading the quality of economic evaluations challenging and observed no statistically significant improvement in quality of studies between the periods

Modeling companion diagnostics in economic evaluations of targeted oncology therapies: systematic review and methodological checklist

“…Comparison with earlier reviews A number of systematic reviews of economic evaluations of pharmacogenomic interventions across multiple therapeutic areas [23,24,[61][62][63][64][65] or generally related to cancer therapies [25] or a certain type of cancer/targeted therapy [7,66] have been previously published. The focus of some of these reviews [23][24][25]61] has largely been to assess the overall quality of the evaluations.…”

“…The focus of some of these reviews [23][24][25]61] has largely been to assess the overall quality of the evaluations. These studies largely conclude that economic evaluations of pharmacogenomic interventions are of reasonable quality.…”

“…The QHES instrument was chosen as it has been used previously to assess the quality of economic evaluations in other systematic reviews of genetic testing interventions [23][24][25]. The grading system has 16 criteria, each of which is associated with a specific value, such that the total quality score ranges from 0 to 100.…”

Economic Perspectives on Personalized Health Care and Prevention

“…Since then, there have been several structured reviews to synthesize and characterize the body of evidence on the economic value of clinical genomic applications (Giacomini et al 2003;Carlson et al 2005;Vegter et al 2008;Beaulieu et al 2010;Wong et al 2010;Djalalov et al 2011). These reviews have aggregated and drawn conclusions about the costeffectiveness of various types of PM applications, assessed the quality of the available evidence, and proposed methodological standards that should be put in place to ensure that economic evaluations are producing the information needed for decision-making.…”

The Ethical Introduction of Genome-Based Information and Technologies into Public Health

“…The last 2 major English language reviews on the subject reported 63 analyses performed between 1990 and 2004, and 26 analyses performed from 2004-2009 [36,37]. Whether the evaluation processes are prohibitive or not well elaborated or there has been a lack of interest in doing such research should be determined.…”