In health economics, modelling is a key approach of investigation. Recent literature has highlighted how social and ethical norms impact model building in other modeling-intensive domains, such as climate science. However, no comparable research in health economics has been conducted. Using philosophical theory and qualitative interviews, this study investigated the role of social, ethical, and other values in health economics modelling in British Columbia, Canada. We spoke with 22 experts in the field of health economics modelling. The study's findings support four philosophical reasons that social and ethical values play a crucial part in scientific investigation and show how these arguments might be applied to health economics modelling. This article emphasises how social values influence early modelling decisions, model assumptions, and trade-offs between acceptable model options. Characteristics and establishing evidence criteria these findings highlight a number of modelling choices that should be the subject of future health economics research, especially that which seeks to take patient and societal values into account.
KeywordsHealth Economics; Modelling Patient-Oriented Research; Patient and Public Involvement; Values; Qualitative
Published Date: 2023-01-31; Received Date: 2023-01-02
