R for trial and model-based cost-effectiveness analysis

9 July 2019, University College London

Background and objectives

It is our pleasure to announce a workshop and training event on the use of R for trial and model-based cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA). This follows our successful workshop on R for CEA in 2018.

Our event will begin with a half-day short course on R for decision trees and Markov models and the use of the BCEA package for graphical and statistical analysis of results; this will be delivered by Gianluca Baio of UCL and Howard Thom of Bristol University.

This will be followed by a one-day workshop in which we will present a wide variety of technical aspects by experts from academia, industry, and government institutions (including NICE). Topics will include decision trees, Markov models, discrete event simulation, integration of network meta-analysis, extrapolation of survival curves, and development of R packages. Participants are also invited so submit abstracts for potential oral presentations; workshop and dinner fees will be waived for those presenting. An optional dinner and networking event will be held on the evening of 8th July.

Fees and a preliminary programme are provided below.

Preliminary Programme

Day 1: Introduction to R for Cost-Effectiveness Modelling. Monday 8th July.

• 13:00-13:15. Howard Thom. Welcome and introductions
• 13:15-13:30. Howard Thom. Building a decision tree in R
• 13:30-14:00. Gianluca Baio. Using BCEA to summarise outputs of an economic model
• 14:00-14:30. Practical 1 (Decision trees)
• 14:30-14:45. Coffee break
• 14:45-15:30. Howard Thom. R for building Markov models
• 15:30-16:00. Gianluca Baio. Further use of BCEA
• 16:00-17:00. Practical 2 (Markov models)

Day 2: Workshop. Tuesday 9th July.

• 9:30-9:45. Howard Thom. Welcome
• 9:45-10:15. Nathan Green. Imperial College London. _Simple, pain-free decision trees in R for the Excel user
• 10:15-10:25 Pedro Saramago. Centre for Health Economics, University of York. Using R for Markov modelling: an introduction
• 10:25-11:05. Alison Smith. University of Leeds. Discrete event simulation models in R
• 11:05-11:20. Coffee
• 11:20-12:20. Participants oral presentation session (4 speakers, 15 minutes each)
• 12:20-13:45. Lunch
• 13:45-14:00. Gianluca Baio. University College London. Packing up, shacking up’s (going to be) all you wanna do!. Building packages in R and Github
• 14:00-14:15. Jeroen Jansen. Innovation and Value Initiative. State transition models and integration with network meta-analysis
• 14:15-14:25. Ash Bullement. Delta Hat Analytics, UK. Fitting and extrapolating survival curves for CEA models
• 14:25-14:45. Iryna Schlackow. Nuffield Department of Public Health, University of Oxford. Generic R methods to prepare routine healthcare data for disease modelling
• 14:45-15:00. Coffee
• 15:00-15:15. Initiatives for the future and challenges in gaining R acceptance (ISPOR Taskforce, ISPOR Special Interest Group, future of the R for CEA workshop)
• 15:15-16:30. Participant discussion.
• 16:30-16:45. Anthony Hatswell. Close and conclusions

There is no registration deadline, but places are limited so it is recommended to register soon!

To submit an abstract, please send it to howard.thom@bristol.ac.uk with the subject “R for CEA abstract”. The word limit is 300. Abstract submission deadline is 15 May 2019 and the scientific committee will make decisions on acceptance by 1st June 2018.