Courses in Decision Modelling for Health Economic Evaluation

The course involves a number of exercises structured within the Microsoft Excel(TM) spreadsheet package. A number of specialist functions, such as vlookup(.) and distribution functions will be covered as part of the course and so familiarity with these specific functions is not essential. However, it is essential that participants are familiar with the basic concepts of manipulating spreadsheets: copy and pasting, using formulae and functions to link cells together, dragging cells to create a series etc. All of the exercises we will cover in the course are included in the book “Decision Modelling for Health Economic Evaluation” and are available online. If you are concerned about your familiarity with Excel, then have a look at one of the early examples ahead of time. You will enjoy the course more, and get more out of the exercises, if you have a reasonable level of Excel proficiency such that you can concentrate on the concepts underlying the exercise rather than learning Excel as you go along.

The course is based around the book “Decision Modelling for Health Economic Evaluation” by Andrew Briggs, Karl Claxton and Mark Sculpher. All of the exercises we will cover in the course are included in this book, but there is no need to attempt the exercises ahead of time. The following article describes an introduction to Markov modelling: Briggs A, Sculpher M. Introducing Markov models for economic evaluation. PharmacoEconomics 1998; 13(4): 397-409. Familiarising yourself with this paper and the commands necessary to build the model in Excel will bring you to the approximate level covered in the Foundations course and prepare you for the Advanced course.

Enthusiasm is probably the most important requirement. The key decision for you is whether to attend the Foundations course first or to go straight to the Advanced course. To help you decide, we suggest you review the article and model download listed under FAQ 2 above. If you find this challenging, consider starting with the Foundations course.

No, our courses are not credit eligible.

No, the course fee is VAT-exempt.

The course fee is payable in advance. Payment is accepted by card or by bank transfer. To register, please complete the registration form linked on the relevant course page, following which you will receive an automated email containing your invoice (and receipt if paying by card) and further instructions. Please note that in order to be able to access the content, payment of the invoice must be received no later than by 8am BST on the course start date.

The course fee is payable in advance. Payment is accepted by card or by bank transfer. To register, please complete the registration form linked on the relevant course page, following which you will receive an automated email containing your invoice (and receipt if paying by card) and further instructions. If you pay by card, you will be enrolled on the course within a few days and will be able to start working through the content straight away. If paying by invoice, you will be enrolled on the course once the invoice has been paid and then you can start working on the content. Your enrolment will remain in place for 2 months.

The Foundations Course is based on 4 modules which, you will see on the website, takes place over about 5.5 weeks in the case of the "live" online course. When we run this course face-to-face, each module takes between 1.5 and 2 hours. So you probably need to plan to make about 2 hours available per module plus one hour for the ‘live’ Q&A per module across the 5.5 weeks. But this will vary from person to person as the exercises will take more or less time depending on prior experience. Please note that students are encouraged to ensure that they have sufficient time set aside to keep up with the content in order to get the most out of the course and live support. If you are following the "on demand" version of the course, you will have access for 2 months.

The Advanced Course is based on four modules which, you will see on the website, takes place over about 6 weeks in the case of the "live" online course. When we run this course face-to-face, each module takes approximately 3 hours. So you probably need to set aside about 3 hours minimum per module plus one hour for the ‘live’ Q&A per module across the 6 weeks. But this will vary from person to person as the exercises will take more or less time depending on prior experience etc. Please note that students are encouraged to ensure that they have sufficient time set aside to keep up with the content in order to get the most out of the course and live support. If you are following the "on demand" version of the course, you will have access for 2 months.