Taking the “Greener” Pill: A Case Study for Incorporating Carbon Footprint in Health Technology Assessment

Speaker(s)

Ruth Chapman, PhD, Evidence Synthesis, Modeling and Communication, Evidera Ltd, London, LON, UK, Michael J Cohen, MSc, MBA, SEA, Environmental Sustainability, PPD, Ft Lauderdale, FL, USA, Grace Hampson, MSc, Office of Health Economics, London, UK and Kinga Marczell, PhD, Modeling&Simulation, Evidera, London, UK

PURPOSE: To test the feasibility of accounting for carbon emissions in HTA and go beyond theoretical considerations by showing and discussing worked examples for carbon footprint (CF) assessment inspired by methods used in clinical trial conduct.

DESCRIPTION: Previous discussions at ISPOR addressed the normative aspect of incorporating environmental impacts in HTA, but they stopped short of practical consideration of how this could be implemented. HEOR is not the only field grappling with methodological and data availability challenges related to assessing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and we can learn from initiatives in other parts of the industry, such as clinical trial conduct. This session will focus on practical examples of methods to incorporation of carbon footprint assessment into HTA.

This session will start with a discussion of types of incentives available to encourage industry to improve the carbon efficiency profile of products (regulatory, reputational, market-based), followed by outlining how HTA bodies have approached this debate to date, and summarising the progress made (15min, Hampson). A state-of-the art method for assessing CF via a full or partial lifecycle analysis and synergies between data generation for carbon emission assessment in trials and for HTAs will be discussed. An example of an approach to CF assessment of a clinical trial will be shown, alongside challenges encountered and solutions implemented related to methodology and data availability (15min, Cohen). Concepts of “parallel environmental evaluation” and “evaluation integrated into HTA” will be demonstrated via a case study. Aspects of the methodology will be discussed including direct/indirect impact on carbon emissions; potential ways of presenting CF alongside traditional cost-effectiveness results; converting GHG emissions into monetary values using alternative concepts; an exploratory method for calculating carbon emission adjusted economically justifiable price (15min, Marczell). Active participation of the audience will be encouraged via polling (15min).

Code

318

Topic

Economic Evaluation