Abstract

Objectives

Health economic (HE) models are often considered as “black boxes” because they are not publicly available and lack transparency, which prevents independent scrutiny of HE models. Additionally, validation efforts and validation status of HE models are not systematically reported. Methods to validate HE models in absence of their full underlying code are therefore urgently needed to improve health policy making.

Methods

The Probabilistic Analysis Check dashBOARD (PACBOARD) was developed using insights from literature, health economists, and a data scientist.

Results

PACBOARD automatically identified all errors introduced in the erroneous HE models. Metamodel predictions were accurate compared with the original model outcomes.

Conclusions

PACBOARD is a unique dashboard aiming at improving the feasibility and transparency of validation efforts of HE models. PACBOARD allows users to explore the working of HE models using metamodeling based on HE models’ parameters and outcomes.