The augmented representation of the cost-effectiveness acceptability curve for economic evaluation of health technology.

New schemes on the cost-effectiveness acceptability curve (CEAC) were developed, which can make the CEAC augmented to be more informative regarding the types of acceptance and statistical inference. Theoretical approaches have been undertaken to address two questions: 1) how the area under the curve (AUC) can be zoned by different types of acceptance displayed on the incremental cost-effectiveness plane, and 2) how the accepted dataset of incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs), which are generated by simulation runs, can be statistically associated with a threshold of ICER for acceptance. To address the first question, the AUC of a typically sigmoid-shaped CEAC was divided into three zones according to the three segmentations of the scattered plots accepted at South-east, North-east and South-west quadrants on the incremental cost-effectiveness plane. A solution for the second question was "a new CEAC of the mean" (mCEAC), which is defined by plotting a pair of the mean and its occurrence probability of ICER accepted at North-east quadrant on the incremental cost-effectiveness plane. All those schemes were graphically illustrated based on hypothetical examples using the bootstrapping simulation. Our new schemes on CEAC will provide decision makers with useful information on cost-effectiveness assessment beyond the standard presentation of CEAC.