CCHE Seminar Series: The Challenges of Cost-Effectiveness Analyses in a Pediatric Setting: Little People, Little Increments

The Challenges of Cost-Effectiveness Analyses in a Pediatric Setting: Little People, Little Increments

Myla Moretti
Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto

Friday November 18, 2022, 10am-12pm, HS Room 108 and Zoom

Abstract: Healthcare systems around the world constantly struggle with finite resources and increasing demands. This is likely true across all nations, all jurisdictions, and populations, including children. While children are largely seen as a healthy population, they too require healthcare. While most children only require primary care, there remains a smaller group that need acute hospitalization and even chronic care for ongoing conditions. More recently, these needs are being compounded as we attempt to recover from the pandemic and its restrictions. Children and their families may have avoided or been unable to access routine care and viral respiratory illnesses are surging. There is a perfect storm brewing in pediatric hospitals across the country. Couple this with the increased emphasis on improving efficiencies and reducing costs, all institutions are recognizing the importance of incorporating cost-effectiveness analyses into daily business. In this seminar I will share some of my recent work conducting pediatric economic evaluation within a tertiary hospital. We will look at the strategies we have used and how to approach the methodological challenges of this unique setting.  Recognizing that each evaluation can not lead to dramatic cost shifts, these real-world examples will show how we can answer very specific research questions, one-by-one, to determine were a difference can be made. So, while we may think of children as little people with little problems, we work towards accumulating little increments to affect larger change.

Dr. Moretti is a health economist and senior research associate within the Ontario Child Health Support Unit and Child Health and Evaluative Sciences Program at the Hospital for Sick Children’s Research Institute. She is an experienced researcher in health economics, decision modelling, epidemiology and clinical pharmacology. She has co-authored over 90 peer reviewed publications and 15 book chapters. Dr. Moretti`s research focuses on economic evaluations alongside pediatric clinical trials, developing methods to best collect health service use and measure patient outcomes.