Statistical assessment of the learning curves of health technologies

Ramsay C R, Grant A M, Wallace S A, Garthwaite P H, Monk A F, Russell I T
Record ID 32001000059
English
Authors' objectives:

- To describe systematically studies that directly assessed the learning curve effect of health technologies. - Systematically to identify novel statistical techniques applied to learning curve data in other fields, such as psychology and manufacturing. - To test these statistical techniques in data sets from studies of varying designs to assess health technologies in which learning curve effects are known to exist.

Authors' recommendations: Health technology assessment literature review The statistical methods used for assessing learning effects in health technology assessment have been crude and the reporting of studies poor. Non-health technology assessment literature search A number of statistical methods for assessing learning effects were identified that had not hitherto been used in health technology assessment. There was a hierarchy of methods for the identification and measurement of learning, and the more sophisticated methods for both have had little if any use in health technology assessment. This demonstrated the value of considering fields outside clinical research when addressing methodological issues in health technology assessment. Testing of statistical methods It has been demonstrated that the portfolio of techniques identified can enhance investigations of learning curve effects.
Authors' methods: Systematic review, Statistical assessment
Details
Project Status: Completed
URL for project: http://www.hta.ac.uk/1056
Year Published: 2001
English language abstract: An English language summary is available
Publication Type: Not Assigned
Country: England, United Kingdom
MeSH Terms
  • Learning
  • Technology Assessment, Biomedical
Contact
Organisation Name: NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme
Contact Address: NIHR Journals Library, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre, Alpha House, University of Southampton Science Park, Southampton SO16 7NS, UK
Contact Name: journals.library@nihr.ac.uk
Contact Email: journals.library@nihr.ac.uk
Copyright: 2009 Queen's Printer and Controller of HMSO
This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment from a member of INAHTA or other HTA producer. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database.