PURPOSE: This workshop will help participants to understand: a) what heterogeneity in preferences means; b) how heterogeneity can be accounted for in stated preference studies; c) how understanding preference heterogeneity can contribute to decision making; and d) how preference heterogeneity is currently accounted for in preference studies.

DESCRIPTION: Background: Stated-preference methods have become widely used as researchers and decision makers increasingly elicit stakeholders’ healthcare preferences. Preferences are typically quantified as the average trade-offs that patients, caregivers, or physicians are willing to make between benefits, risks and other treatment aspects. However, preferences may be heterogeneous within a given population and approaches to account for such heterogeneity have received more attention in recent years. While a range of guidelines and frameworks have been published to establish quality standards in preference research, they offer little direct advice on how to account for preference heterogeneity. This lack of established guidance is matched with numerous methods and approaches that have been published over the years, such that practitioners face a challenging choice.

Leaders: Prof Marshall will give an overview of preference heterogeneity and its practical implications for informing regulatory, reimbursement, and resource allocation decisions. Dr Heidenreich will provide an overview of available methods and common pitfalls. Dr Boeri will present insights into the current state-of-practice in accounting for preference heterogeneity, obtained from a literature review that was part of the ISPOR health preference working group. All discussion leaders will draw on empirical examples.