Quality Adjusted Life Year

Ideas for followup

Medical Research Council may have candidates

Quotes

The utility values used in QALY calculations are generally determined by methods that measure people's willingness to trade time in different health states, such as those proposed in the Journal of Health Economics:[4]

Time-trade-off (TTO),

Standard gamble (SG)

Visual analogue scale (VAS):

NSM: speaks to incentives of patients. Who are leading researchers in QALY calculations?

The first mention of Quality Adjusted Life Years appeared in a doctoral thesis at Harvard University by Joseph S. Pliskin (1974).

As early as 1989, Loomes and McKenzie recommended that research be conducted concerning the validity of QALYs.[22]

Ariel Beresniak, the study's lead author, was quoted as saying that it was the "largest-ever study specifically dedicated to testing the assumptions of the QALY."[24]
Ariel Beresniak (born 3 December 1961) is a Swiss specialist in Public Health and Health Economics, author of reference books and scientific articles in modeling and decision-making analyses.

The use of QALYs has been criticized by disability advocates because otherwise healthy individuals cannot return to full health or achieve a high QALY score. Treatments for quadriplegics, patients with multiple sclerosis, or other disabilities are valued less under a QALY-based system.[29]

The UK Medical Research Council and others are exploring improvements to or replacements for QALYs.[33] Among other possibilities are extending the data used to calculate QALYs (e.g., by using different survey instruments); "using well-being to value outcomes" (e.g., by developing a "well-being-adjusted life-year"; and by value outcomes in monetary terms.[33] In 2018 HM Treasury set a discount rate of 1.5% for QALYs, which is lower than the discount rate for other costs and benefits, because the QALY is a direct utility measure.[34]