CCHE Seminar Series: Economic Evaluation in Child Health: Playing Outside of the Sandbox

Economic Evaluation in Child Health: Playing Outside of the Sandbox

Wendy Ungar
Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto

Friday March 10, 2023, 10am-12pm, HSB 108 and Zoom

Abstract: With the growth of economic evaluation to inform budget decisions, challenges in applying standard methods to special populations are increasingly apparent. This is especially true in child health. Using case studies of autism intervention and genome sequencing for the diagnosis of unexplained disorders, methodologic challenges related to and the theoretical basis for: i) choosing a payer perspective for the reference case analysis, ii) measuring and reporting inter-sectoral public sector costs, ii) ascertaining health state preferences for very young children, and iv) incorporating family member spillover effects will be examined.  Child health HTA “in action” will be exemplified with the Genome Sequencing Ontario implementation project.

Wendy J. Ungar is a Senior Scientist, Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, and Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto. She holds a BA cum laude from Brandeis University, a Masters degree in Pharmacology and Therapeutics from McGill University, and a PhD in Health Policy, Management and Evaluation from the University of Toronto. Dr. Ungar holds a tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Economic Evaluation and Technology Assessment in Child Health. She founded TASK (Technology Assessment at Sick Kids) in 2007 where her team conducts research applying health economic methods to child health with a focus on genomics and neurodevelopmental disorders. Dr. Ungar and her team maintain the PEDE database, a user-friendly searchable online database of pediatric economic evaluations published since 1980 used by HTA agencies around the world. In 2017 Dr. Ungar was appointed Chair of the Ontario Genetic Testing Advisory Committee which makes funding recommendations on emerging genetic testing technologies for Ontario and in 2020 she was awarded the Dr. Jill M. Sanders Award of Excellence in Health Technology Assessment from the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health. Her book, Economic Evaluation in Child Health was published by Oxford University Press in 2010.

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