Understanding and using patient experiences as evidence in healthcare priority setting

Area of Science:

• Health economics
• Bioethics
• Social sciences

Background:

• Healthcare priority-setting committees use criteria like clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness to control costs.
• Current evidence bases for these decisions typically exclude patient perspectives on conditions and treatments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To argue for the ethical necessity of including patient experience evidence in healthcare priority-setting.
• To demonstrate how patient-generated evidence can enhance decision-making processes.

Main Methods:

• Drawing on political philosophy and ethics to support the inclusion of patient experience.
• Utilizing social sciences and mixed-methods research for robust evidence generation.

Main Results:

• Patient experience evidence is essential for comprehensive and fair priority-setting.
• High-quality, methodologically rigorous evidence from patients must be systematically gathered and reviewed.
• Patient evidence provides context to clinical data and illuminates the patient experience of illness and treatment.

Conclusions:

• Including patient experience ensures equitable opportunities for treatment funding.
• Patient evidence directly informs understanding of condition impact, patient needs, and treatment effects.
• Policy changes are needed to commission and consider patient experience evidence in priority-setting bodies.