Helen Dakin and Frederick McElwee, researchers at the Health Economics Research Centre (HERC), part of Oxford Population Health, are researching how decisions about healthcare interventions are influenced by other healthcare decisions. One focus of the study is on medicines to lower cholesterol for people with chronic kidney disease.
We are looking at how healthcare decisions affect one another. For example, decisions about what treatments are available later on may change the costs, risks or benefits of the treatment we are deciding about now. We call these “interacting decisions”. Ignoring these “interactions” can lead to incorrect recommendations by healthcare bodies (such as the National Institute for Heath and Care Excellence/NICE), which do not improve patient health.
To give an example outside healthcare: someone’s decision about which type of car to buy may be
affected by:
- Past decisions (e.g., where to live/work, whether to install an electric charge point, family size,
child seat purchases) - Current decisions (e.g., how to commute to work)
- Future decisions (e.g., how long to keep the car, moving house, changing job, having a(nother) child, buying new child car seats).
We aim to develop three tools that can be used to identify interacting decisions:
- To help researchers see how cost-effective a treatment is.
- To help researchers planning a clinical trial.
- To help decision-makers (like NICE) decide if they should recommend a medicine.
We hope our tools will be used in future decisions by NICE (and similar bodies around the UK and abroad). This could improve healthcare recommendations and improve health for all diseases. Our trial tool could make clinical trials better and more relevant to patients.
To develop these tools, we are doing three case studies: chronic kidney disease, kidney cancer and type 2 diabetes. Our first case study is on treatments to lower cholesterol in people with chronic kidney disease.
We’ve already reviewed scientific papers and talked to doctors, but now want to explore insights from people with lived experiences. This will bring a fresh perspective and help us understand what factors you considered when deciding about treatment.
We are looking for people with chronic kidney disease who have considered starting, restarting or changing medicines to lower cholesterol (e.g. statins, ezetimibe) in the last three years. We want to hear about your experience no matter what decision you or your doctor made.
We hope to talk to two or three people with kidney disease this autumn.
Your only commitment would be just one meeting, which can be online or by telephone (whichever
you prefer). The meeting will be just between you and us and will last between 20 and 30 minutes.
We will ask you to remember when you made the decision about starting, restarting or changing
medicines to lower cholesterol. What option(s) were offered to you? What factors did you consider?
Did you consider the effect of any other healthcare decisions? What factors do you think doctors or
nurses considered?
If you would like to be involved, the deadline for contacting us (using the details below) is 1 December 2024.
Reimbursement
You will be reimbursed for your time in line with the Oxford Population Health payment policy for
public contributors. The current rate is £25 per hour of participation.
Date required
8 December 2024
Organisation
Oxford Population Health
Contact
Leandros (Leo) Tsiotos, Senior Public & Patient Involvement & Engagement Officer: ppie@ndph.ox.ac.uk
https://www.ndph.ox.ac.uk/patients-and-the-public