Value of Information Analytical Methods: Report 2 of the ISPOR Value of Information Analysis Emerging Good Practices Task Force

• Published in: Value in health Vol. 23; no. 3; pp. 277 - 286
• Main Authors: Rothery, Claire, Strong, Mark, Koffijberg, Hendrik (Erik), Basu, Anirban, Ghabri, Salah, Knies, Saskia, Murray, James F., Sanders Schmidler, Gillian D., Steuten, Lotte, Fenwick, Elisabeth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.03.2020; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Cost analysis; Decision making; ENBS; EVPI; EVPPI; EVSI; Health care; Health care delivery; Health care expenditures; Internal Medicine; Public Health; Resource allocation; Sampling; study design; Uncertainty; Value; value of information; value of research; value of research; decision making; EVSI; ENBS; EVPI; value of information; EVPPI; study design
• ISSN: 1098-3015; 1524-4733; 1524-4733
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jval.2020.01.004

The allocation of healthcare resources among competing priorities requires an assessment of the expected costs and health effects of investing resources in the activities and of the opportunity cost of the expenditure. To date, much effort has been devoted to assessing the expected costs and health effects, but there remains an important need to also reflect the consequences of uncertainty in resource allocation decisions and the value of further research to reduce uncertainty. Decision making with uncertainty may turn out to be suboptimal, resulting in health loss. Consequently, there may be value in reducing uncertainty, through the collection of new evidence, to better inform resource decisions. This value can be quantified using value of information (VOI) analysis. This report from the ISPOR VOI Task Force describes methods for computing 4 VOI measures: the expected value of perfect information, expected value of partial perfect information (EVPPI), expected value of sample information (EVSI), and expected net benefit of sampling (ENBS). Several methods exist for computing EVPPI and EVSI, and this report provides guidance on selecting the most appropriate method based on the features of the decision problem. The report provides a number of recommendations for good practice when planning, undertaking, or reviewing VOI analyses. The software needed to compute VOI is discussed, and areas for future research are highlighted. •Value of information (VOI) analysis provides a framework for quantifying the value of acquiring additional information to reduce uncertainty in decision making. Quantifying the expected improvement with new information requires an assessment of the scale and consequences of uncertainty in terms of payoffs. Acquiring information, however, can be costly. Therefore, the value of new information is compared with the cost of acquiring the information to determine whether it is worthwhile.•This report provides practical guidance on the methods and reporting of VOI analysis. The methods are presented in generic form to allow them to be adapted to any specific decision-making context. This means that even in healthcare systems in which economic considerations are not explicitly incorporated into decision making, the same methods can be applied.•This report provides 8 recommendations for good practice when planning, undertaking, or reviewing VOI analyses. The primary audience for the report is methodologists or analysts who are responsible for undertaking VOI analysis to inform decision making.