Evidence synthesis to inform the optimal use of immunoglobulin (the VALUE-Ig study)
Funding agency
MRFF – Medical Research Future Fund
Project period
2022–2025
Summary
Immunoglobulin is an expensive fractionated blood project made from pooled human plasma. The use of immunoglobulin in Australia has been increasing rapidly despite limited evidence to inform the appropriate clinical boundaries. The aim of the VALUE-Ig project is to improve the evidence base to inform the cost-effective use of immunoglobulin in four patient cohorts - haematological malignancy, solid transplant, primary immunodeficiency, and myasthenia gravis.
The VALUE-Ig project will complement clinical trial programs already underway by collating the latest observational data on immunoglobulin use. This will include collecting additional data through established Australian registries as well as accessing routinely collected administrative hospital data. Clinical expert and consumer panels will be used to validate the evidence, and stated preference experiments with clinicians and patients will help us to understand the factors that drive preferences for immunoglobulin therapy. These data will be used to build economic models to understand when using immunoglobulin is cost-effective compared to alternative treatment options for each patient cohort.
Researchers
Professor Dennis Petrie
Prof Petrie is the Principal Chief Investigator of the VALUE-Ig study. He has published extensively on the economics of disability, cancer, the longitudinal measurement and evaluation of health inequalities and has led a large number of economic evaluations of healthcare interventions, including alongside RCTs. He specialises in analysing large and complex data sets to improve health policy decisions with a focus on reducing health inequities.
Professor Anthony Harris
Prof Harris is an experienced health economist with a particular interest in the evaluation of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of health care and prevention programs using experimental or observational data, econometric and decision analytic modelling. He has published widely in health economics and particularly in the area of health services decision-making and modelling the economics of the Australian health care system that uses a range of microeconomic and microeconometric models to simulate policy issues in health care finance.
Dr Laura Fanning
Laura is a senior research fellow with extensive expertise in health economic evaluation, pharmacoepidemiology, health technology assessment and the linkage and analysis of population-based healthcare data from Australian and international healthcare settings. She evaluates the clinical- and cost-effectiveness of pharmaceutical submissions to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) and conducts independent research into the comparative effectiveness, safety, and value for money of pharmaceuticals in real-world populations.
Dr Adam Irving
Dr Irving is an early-career health economist and research fellow with experience and interest in evaluating the impact of interventions designed to encourage the judicious use of scarce resources, performing economic evaluations using clinical trial or observational data, and research in transfusion medicine, haematology, and haematological malignancy.
Dr Xin (Abby) Zhang
Dr Zhang joined the Centre for Health Economics as a research fellow of the VALUE-Ig project in April 2023. She holds a major in Economics, complemented by a strong background in econometrics and statistics. She specialises in investigating the impacts of public policies, including health, education and labour and addressing policy implications for disadvantaged populations.
Dr Gozde Aydin
Dr Aydin joined the Centre for Health Economics as the project manager of the VALUE-Ig study in June 2023. She is a mixed-method researcher with a background in health. She has experience managing pilot health education studies and nationwide health-related research projects.
Ms Sara Carrillo de Albornoz
Sara is a PhD candidate within the Transfusion Research Unit at Monash University and has extensive experience in health technology assessments. She evaluates the clinical and cost-effectiveness of medical technologies for funding within the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) and Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) in Australia. Her research interests include economic modelling, health-related quality-of-life measures, and cost-effectiveness analysis alongside clinical trials.
Rainier Arnolda
Rainier is a PhD candidate who joined the Centre for Health Economics in August 2023. He has an academic background in health economics, economic evaluation, and laboratory medicine. He has experience in clinical cancer genomics and clinical trials.
Chief investigators
- Assoc Prof Zoe McQuilten, Monash University
- Prof Erica Wood, Monash University
- Assoc Prof Anneke van der Walt, Monash University
- Assoc Prof Stephen Reddel, University of Sydney
- Prof Andrew Spencer, Alfred Health
- Assoc Prof Eliza Hawkes, Monash University
- Assoc Prof Philip Crispin, Australian National University
- Prof Stephen Opat, Monash Health
- Dr Katherine Buzzard, Monash University
Associate investigators
- Dr Khai Li Chai, Monash University Haematologist, PhD scholar
- Dr Cameron Wellard, Monash University Data Manager, NTD/MRDR/LaRDR
- Assoc Prof Lynette Kiers, Melbourne Health Neurologist, Ig Expert
- Dr Mahima Kapoor, Alfred Health Neurologist, PhD scholar
- Dr Belinda Cruse, Melbourne Health Neurologist
- Ms Janne Williams, Ig Consumer, Lymphoma Survivor