Do rheumatology cost-effectiveness analyses make sense?
A. Brennan and N. Bansback Operational Research, School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield, UK Correspondence to: A. Brennan. E-mail: a.brennan{at}sheffield.ac.uk’ + u + ‘@’ + d + ”//–> SIR, Wolfe et al. [1] provides a valuable editorial into the field of economic evaluation in rheumatology. The editorial focuses first on the relation between observational and randomized controlled trial (RCT) data on improvement in health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) disability score and second on the realism of using the disease activity score (DAS28) as the clinical criterion for judging successful response. We would like to extend the thinking in both these areas and discuss a further important issue relating to the timing of policy decisions. The first key point questions the use of HAQ score improvements from RCT versus observational data. In considering this further, we believe the apparent incompatibility between data sources is a function of timing of measurement and p
