DURATION
3 weeks
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
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EARLIEST START DATE
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STUDY FORMAT
Distance Learning
Key Summary
Scholarships
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Introduction
Learn how patient-reported outcome measures and quality-adjusted life-years can compare treatments and inform health spending.
Explore how and why we decide what drugs and treatments should be funded
Healthcare systems around the world are increasingly under pressure to fund new drugs, treatments and other healthcare interventions.
In this course, you’ll learn how health outcome measuring can help us to make more informed decisions about where to spend our limited healthcare budgets.
You’ll find out how patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) are developed and calculated and learn how they can be used to compare treatment benefits in practice.
What topics will you cover?
The course focuses on two different types of measures, asking how they’re developed and calculated, and how they’re used by decision-makers in practice:
- Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs): which are measures completed by the patients themselves, about their health, symptoms, functioning, well-being or satisfaction with treatment.
- Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs): which compare the benefits of different treatment options, based on the quality and quantity of life they yield.
When would you like to start?
Start straight away and learn at your own pace. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.
- Available now
Who will you learn with?
| Clara Mukuria I am a Health Economist at ScHARR at the University of Sheffield. My research interests are in measuring and valuing health-related quality of life and well-being. | Katherine Stevens I am a Health Economist working in ScHARR at The University of Sheffield. My research interest is measuring and valuing children's health-related quality of life. |
Who developed the course?
The University of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield is one of the world’s top 100 universities with a reputation for teaching and research excellence.
Curriculum
What topics will you cover
The course focuses on two different types of measures, asking how they’re developed and calculated, and how they’re used by decision-makers in practice:
- Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs): which are measures completed by the patients themselves, about their health, symptoms, functioning, well-being or satisfaction with treatment.
- Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs): which compare the benefits of different treatment options, based on the quality and quantity of life they yield.
Program Outcome
What will you achieve
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to:
- Discuss what health means and how to measure its impact on the quality of life.
- Evaluate how to develop and use patient-reported outcome measures including their limitations in decision-making.
- Calculate QALYs in simple examples to arrive at values that can be used to compare treatment benefits.
- Perform a time trade-off to develop an understanding of how this method can be used to value health states and generate preference weights.
- Debate who should value our health. Should it be patients, health professionals or the general public and should this be different for children’s health?
- Compare where QALYs are used in healthcare decision-making worldwide and discuss the merits of this method compared to those used where you live.
Ideal Students
Who is the course for
This course is designed for anyone interested in how and why choices about drugs and treatments have been made.
It is ideal learning for anyone considering a career in healthcare, local decision-making or academia.
If you wish to take your learning further, the University of Sheffield’s other Master's degrees and short courses address areas such as health economics, public health and international healthcare technology assessment.