Newswise — Lawrenceville, NJ, USA —June 18, 2024— ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research announced today the publication of a collection of papers that examine the long-standing debate surrounding the use of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and alternative measures in healthcare decision making. The lead editorial, “ QALYs, QALY-Like Measures, or Neither? The Debate Continues ,” by Nancy J Devlin, PhD, Michael F. Drummond, MCom, DPhil, and C.
Daniel Mullins, PhD, provides a brief history of the QALY, describes the ongoing discussions about its ethical basis and use in cost-effectiveness analysis and policy decision making, and introduces 4 additional manuscripts relevant to understanding the current debate around the QALY and its alternatives. All 5 papers were published in the June 2024 issue of Value in Health . In their opening editorial, Devlin, Drummond, and Mullins highlight the recent resistance to the QALY in the United States, where anti-QALY lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry and opposition to the use of QALYs by patient groups has placed political pressure on legislators.
As a result, the use of QALYs or similar measures in decisions concerning Medicare coverage and reimbursement is legislatively forbidden. This backlash against the QALY in the United States stands in stark contrast to the rest of the world, where the use of the QALY in evidence to inform health technology assessment has continued to grow. The .