Semi-automation of Early Health Technology Assessment for UK Life and Health Sciences SMEs

Early Health Technology Assessment (Early HTA) is the process of assessing the potential value of health technologies in early development, to establish their attractiveness to health care payers, clinical professionals and patients, to inform decisions about investments in, and the design of research and development to progress the technology to market. Decision analytic cost effectiveness models are a core component of Early HTA.

Markov models account for the vast majority of model types used. A modest number of inputs are required to establish the Markov model specification required for particular Early HTA.

Birota Economics Group UK uses a secure digital platform to link early stage Life Sciences SMEs to experts in decision analytic modelling (Assessors), to provide Early HTA services at an affordable price point. Currently the delivery time for Birota Economics Group UK Early HTA services is 12 weeks. The majority of this time is required for the construction and validation of the models by our Assessors.

Developing a suite of model templates and training a generative AI transformer, would reduce the delivery time by more than half, increase precision with natural language processing, and a corresponding reduction in cost, making the service financially attractive to more early stage companies.

Drawing on our experience of providing Early HTA and leveraging generative AI models, we will develop Quality Assured Markov model templates in R, with R-shiny interfaces for data entry and model outputs. We will incorporate pre-trained transformers and natural language prompt templates into our secure digital platform (assessplatform.com), which will (a) identify the appropriate model template; (b) generate model parameter tables for completion by our Assessors and (c) select model outputs for inclusion in the Early HTA Report; (d) run the model; and (e) generate report text for optimisation by the Assessors.

This will reduce project duration and costs, as well as further increasing the confidentiality and data security of our services, and increase the number of SMEs that can afford the services.