2. Case Studies

This chapter presents two detailed case studies in health economic evaluation. The first case study focuses on a decision-analytic model for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of an influenza vaccination program. It covers the statistical modeling of clinical outcomes, the assumptions underlying the model, and the translation of these assumptions into code for Bayesian analysis using OpenBUGS or JAGS. The chapter provides a step-by-step guide to running the model, interpreting the results, and performing economic analysis. The second case study examines a multi-decision problem involving smoking cessation interventions. It discusses the use of network meta-analysis to combine evidence from different trials and the application of Bayesian methods to estimate the effectiveness of various interventions. The chapter also covers the economic modeling aspects, including the simulation of costs and the calculation of life years gained by quitting smoking. Throughout the chapter, practical examples and code snippets are provided to illustrate the processes involved. The chapter concludes with a discussion on how to perform decision and uncertainty analyses using the BCEA package in R. Readers will gain insights into the practical implementation of health economic evaluations and the use of Bayesian methods in decision-making.