Title: Assessing a Brief Value of Information (VoI) Method for its Potential Use in Assisting Panel and Board Decision Making
Funder: Department of Health and Social Care

Abstract: Research prioritisation decisions require an assessment of the potential value of future research in terms of its expected health benefits to the health system. Research also consumes valuable resources which could be devoted to patient care or to other more valuable research priorities. Therefore commissioning research involves making prioritisation decisions across a number of diverse clinical areas. Value of Information (VOI) analysis provides a quantitative assessment of the potential benefits of acquiring further evidence, which will depend on whether the expected benefits are likely to exceed the costs and how this value compares to other research topics competing for the same resources. Recently it has been shown that VOI can allow for rapid estimation of the value of further research without the need for constructing complex and expensive decision models. Rapid VOI takes the primary outcome of effectiveness as its starting point and uses it to understand the consequences of uncertainty. In situations where other outcomes are important, a minimum clinical difference is used to establish the effectiveness that would need to be detected in further research. This research aims to assess the potential role of rapid value of information (VOI) to assist in decision making in panel and board meetings. The methods will be developed and adapted to meet the decision making needs of The NIHR Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC).

Lay abstract: Uncertainty about the effectiveness of a healthcare intervention creates the potential for adverse health consequences since the expected health benefits may not be realised and the resources committed by the use of the intervention may be wasted. Similarly, if an intervention is not expected to perform better than the available alternatives, rejecting its use may risk failing to provide patients with access to a valuable intervention if the health outcomes prove to be greater than expected. When the scale of the consequences of uncertainty is large, further research about the intervention (e.g. a new clinical trial) may be valuable since it can resolve uncertainty and ultimately lead to better treatment decisions for patients and better use of finite resources. Value of Information (VOI) analysis is a method which allows us to quantify the value of conducting a new clinical study by comparing the expected benefits of having new information to the costs of conducting the research. When this method is used across a range of diverse clinical areas we can compare the value of a new study in one clinical area to the value of a new study in another clinical area in order to prioritise research decisions. Commissioning further research implies that the uncertainty about outcomes is unacceptable and is considered important enough to justify the research costs. This research aims to assess the potential role of VOI to assist in decision making in panel and board meetings.

Research activity codes: 8.3 POLICY, ETHICS AND RESEARCH GOVERNANCE
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE