How do doctors make decisions on when to stop, start or change treatment regimes for hepatitis C patients was the subject of a major study undertaken for a world leading pharmaceutical company by Rand Europe and Baird’s CMC.

The new generation of drugs for Hepatitis C are effective but expensive. How doctors make decisions on when to stop, start or change treatment regimes for these patients – and how long treatment should last – was the subject of a joint study conducted by Rand in partnership with Baird’s CMC. A world leading international pharmaceutical client wanted to understand how doctors make these decisions – were they based on clinical presentation alone, or did social, cultural and economic factors have an influence on the decision making process?

A multi-methodology approach was designed that included a range of qualitative and quantitative approaches and validation techniques, supported by an extensive review of the peer reviewed literature. The study sought to understand the drivers of treatment decisions in France, Germany, Italy, and the UK.
Researchers and consultants worked to identify and distinguish drivers linked to individual behaviour and cultural factors, differences in health system functioning and present and future contexts. How important these factors were in the decision making process was tackled with two discrete choice experiments embedded in a survey given to doctors participating in the study.

Sometimes we need help to make decisions. For patients, the decisions doctors make can have life or death consequences.

This work, together with the literature review, depth interviews, patient pathway mapping and a scenarios workshop with doctors to explore existing and future decision making about treatment, allowed Rand and Baird’s CMC to build a decision tree to support doctors deploy a rational decision making process for treatment choices for different sub-populations of Hep C patients.

This post adapted from a summary first published on Rand Europe.