Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 6
Evaluating the Impact of Treatment
Effectiveness and Side Effects in Prescribing
Choices
Tat Chan , Chakravarthi Narasimhan , and Ying Xie
Abstract
Drugs can be effective in curing an illness or relieving a symptom but can
have harmful side effects. The value of a drug, among others, depends on the trade-
off between treatment effectiveness and side effects. There has been a long history
that treatment effectiveness and safety are used as two of the most important attri-
butes to determine the value of a drug. This chapter provides an overview of research
on evaluating effectiveness and side effects of prescription drugs. We fi rst briefl y
review the standard industry practice of using clinical trials data to measure the
effectiveness and side effects of a drug. We then discuss how researchers may utilize
clinical trials to gauge participants' preferences. After that, we provide a literature
review on studying treatment effectiveness and side effects using post-marketing
prescription choice data. Lastly, we close the chapter with suggestions on future
research questions, for both practitioners and academic researchers.
6.1
Introduction
Drugs can be effective in curing an illness or relieving a symptom but can have harm-
ful side effects. The value of a drug, among others, depends on the trade-off between
treatment effectiveness and side effects. There has been a long history that treatment
effectiveness and safety are used as two of the most important attributes to determine
the value of a drug. In fact, in the United States, since 1938 every new drug has been
the subject of an approved NDA (new drug application) before commercialization,
T. Chan (
*
) • C. Narasimhan
Washington University in St. Louis , St. Louis , MO , USA
e-mail: chan@wustl.edu
Y. Xie
University of Texas at Dallas , Richardson , TX , USA
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