Social preferences for severity to inform health technology assessment

Details

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations for new drugs to be used in the National Health Service (NHS) based on cost effectiveness, modified, for example, for the severity of the condition. However, the NICE severity modifiers have no empirical basis, and it is not known whether members of the public support the NICE definition of severity or the size of the concession that it allows.

The current NICE Guide for Health Technology Assessment sets criteria and weights for the severity modifier, but (as is explicitly acknowledged by NICE) they have no empirical basis. The elicitation of social preferences and the reasons behind them will legitimise the policy.

Supervisors:

Donna Rowen - https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/smph/donna-rowen

Aki Tsuchiya - https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/economics/staff/academic/aki-tsuchiya

Aim:

To explore social preferences regarding how members of the public view disease severity in the context of NHS priority setting.

Methods:

The PhD will involve the elicitation of preferences around severity in the context of whether the benefits of treatments of diseases with greater severity should be given a higher weight than the benefits of treatments of non severe diseases. The concept of severity and its definition will be explored prior to the elicitation of preferences. In line with current NICE recommendations, the preferences will be elicited from members of the public (not patients). The project will include a systematic literature review, scoping of definitions of severity, primary data collection using quantitative techniques and analysis and interpretation of the data, and potentially undertake and analyse qualitative research to inform the design of the data collection study. 

How to apply:

Please complete a University Postgraduate Research Application form available here: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/postgraduate/phd/apply

Please clearly state the title of the studentship, the main supervisor (Donna Rowen) and select ‘School of Medicine and Population Health' as the department.

You will also need to include:

• a draft outline of your proposed PhD study, in line with the research themes described above, of approximately 500 words
• a covering letter explaining why you wish to apply for this studentship.
• a copy of your CV. 
• a good master’s degree (merit or distinction) in economics or (non-clinical) psychology. 

Start date: 1st October 2025