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Population-adjusted treatment comparisons: estimates based on MAIC (Matching-Adjusted Indirect Comparisons) and STC (Simulated Treatment Comparisons)

Thursday 16 March 2017, 12.15PM to 1.15pm

Speaker(s): David Phillippo, Research Associate in Evidence Synthesis, University of Bristol

Abstract: In this talk we present the findings and recommendations of a recent NICE Technical Support Document (available from http://www.nicedsu.org.uk/), regarding the use of population-adjusted treatment comparisons in health technology appraisal.

Standard methods for indirect comparisons and network meta-analysis are based on aggregate data, with the key assumption that there is no difference between trials in the distribution of effect-modifying variables. Two methods which relax this assumption, Matching-Adjusted Indirect Comparison (MAIC) and Simulated Treatment Comparison (STC), are becoming increasingly common in industry-sponsored treatment comparisons, where a company has access to individual patient data (IPD) from its own trials but only aggregate information from competitor trials. Both methods use IPD to adjust for between-trial differences in covariate distributions. Despite their increasing popularity, there is a distinct lack of clarity about how and when these methods should be used. Importantly, some forms of these methods make highly infeasible assumptions, and/or are unable to produce an estimate that is relevant to the target population for the decision. We review the properties of these methods, identifying the key assumptions in the context of indirect comparisons, and provide recommendations on how and when population adjustment methods should be used to provide statistically valid, clinically meaningful, transparent and consistent results for any given target population.

NICE technical support document written by: 

1David M. Phillippo, 1A. E. Ades, 1Sofia Dias, 2Stephen Palmer, 3Keith R. Abrams, 1Nicky J. Welton

1 School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol
2 Centre for Health Economics, University of York
3 Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester

Location: ARRC Auditorium A/RC/014

Population-adjusted treatment comparisons: estimates based on MAIC (Matching-Adjusted Indirect Comparisons) and STC (Simulated Treatment Comparisons) from cheweb1

Who to contact

For more information on these seminars, contact:
Alfredo Palacios
alfredo.palacios@york.ac.uk
Shainur Premji
shainur.premji@york.ac.uk

If you are not a member of University of York staff and are interested in attending a seminar, please contact
alfredo.palacios@york.ac.uk 
or
shainur.premji@york.ac.uk 
so that we can ensure we have sufficient space

Economic evaluation seminar dates

  • TBA