Rafferty Ellen, Reifferscheid Laura, Assi Ali, MacDonald Shannon E
Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Pharmacoecon Open. 2022 Sep;6(5):631-635. doi: 10.1007/s41669-022-00347-1. Epub 2022 Jul 13.
Publicly funded immunization programs have grown in both complexity and scope, resulting in increased costs and more complex programmatic decision making. Economic evaluations can provide crucial information to support informed decision making. While very few countries have National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups that analyze economic information, many have started to develop processes for this purpose. Since these guidelines are being developed at the national level, we propose that regional jurisdictions, especially those responsible for healthcare (e.g., provinces, territories, states), need clear processes for incorporating this information into their immunization decision making and program implementation. We interviewed Canadian vaccine experts involved in provincial vaccine policy decision making to identify current practices, perceptions, and recommendations around incorporating economic analysis into that process. Based on these interviews, we make five recommendations: (1) economic evidence should be routinely incorporated into the decision making process; (2) economic experts should sit on, or be available to, regional advisory committees; (3) efforts should be made to build on regional expertise by increasing educational opportunities on economic evaluation; (4) processes should include guidelines for when economic analysis is not required; and (5) clarification on the role of regional advisory groups in economic analysis is needed in relation to national expertise. The information presented here provides a starting point for regional health policy experts and decision makers to work collaboratively with national partners to create transparent and effective approaches to incorporating economic analysis into vaccine decision making.
由公共资金资助的免疫规划在复杂性和范围上都有所增加，导致成本上升和规划决策更加复杂。经济评估可为明智的决策提供关键信息。虽然很少有国家设有分析经济信息的国家免疫技术咨询小组，但许多国家已开始为此制定相关流程。由于这些指南是在国家层面制定的，我们建议地区管辖机构，特别是那些负责医疗保健的机构（如省份、地区、州），需要有明确的流程将这些信息纳入其免疫决策和规划实施中。我们采访了参与省级疫苗政策决策的加拿大疫苗专家，以确定在将经济分析纳入该过程方面的当前做法、看法和建议。基于这些访谈，我们提出五项建议：（1）经济证据应常规纳入决策过程；（2）经济专家应加入地区咨询委员会或可供其咨询；（3）应通过增加经济评估方面的教育机会来利用地区专业知识；（4）流程应包括在何时无需进行经济分析的指南；（5）需要就地区咨询小组在经济分析方面相对于国家专业知识的作用进行澄清。此处提供的信息为地区卫生政策专家和决策者与国家合作伙伴合作创建将经济分析纳入疫苗决策的透明有效方法提供了一个起点。
