A BEGINNERS’ GUIDE TO THE ART AND SCIENCE OF STATED-PREFERENCE METHODS

Overview: This workshop will provide participants with a basic overview of the variety of stated-preferences methods that can be used to measure the preferences of patients and other stakeholders in medicine. The course will build upon the current good research practices for stated-preferences methods (e.g. Bridges et al, 2011), but will also incorporate hands-on activities and several case studies highlighting interesting applications of stated-preferences methods in healthcare.

Background: Given efforts to provide patient-centered care and to conduct patent-centered outcomes research, there is increased effort to understand the preferences and priorities of patients and other stakeholders in health and healthcare. Stated-preference methods are one approach to identifying what patients and stakeholders value most and what tradeoffs they are willing to make. Grounded in theories of choice from the disciplines of economics and psychology, stated-preference methods such as conjoint analysis, discrete-choice experiments, contingent valuation, and best-worst scaling provide researchers with approaches to identify what patients and other stakeholders value. The successful implementation of stated-preference methods, however, is both an art and a science, but can be guided by recent efforts to identify the range of patient preference methods available to researchers and to identify good research practices for their application.

Format Requirements: This introductory workshop will use lecture, case studies, and a hands-on exercise. It will start with an overview of a wide range of stated-preferences methods, how they stem from theory and the variety of applications in which they have been used for in health. Following a simple hands on workshop, focus will be placed on the recent good research practice guidelines for stated-preference methods, and an interactive discussion of case studies on the art and science of applying stated-preference methods to topics relevant to the valuation of health and healthcare. As an introductory workshop, it is intended for researchers who have little to moderate knowledge about stated-preference methods who aim to understand more about these methods and their possible applications. Some basic knowledge of survey methods, patient-reported outcomes, and statistical analysis (including linear regression) would be advantageous, but is not required.

Description and Objectives: This workshop will provide participants with a basic overview of the variety of stated-preferences methods that can be used to measure the preferences of patients and other stakeholders in medicine. The course will build upon the current good research practices for stated-preferences methods (e.g. Bridges et al, 2011), but will also incorporate hands-on activities and several case studies highlighting interesting applications of stated-preferences methods in healthcare.

By the end of this course participants will:

• Have a greater understanding of the variety of stated-preferences methods that can be used to measure preferences and priorities;
• Have a deeper awareness of the advantages of stated-preferences methods over alternative approaches to measuring values; and
• Develop some basic skills to indentify when a particular stated-preference method is appropriate for a particular research question and know where to find appropriate guidance to apply the methods successfully.