Disease Burden Calculator (iDBC)
A free online R-based calculator; easy tool to calculate burden of disease
In The Netherlands, the cost-utility threshold depends on burden of disease: when a condition has a higher burden of disease, a higher threshold applies. The highest threshold is 80,000 euro per Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY), which applies for conditions with a high burden of disease.
The NICE’s new manual for health technology evaluations published in January 2022, explicitly indicates that the committee appraisal will consider the severity of the condition as determined by the associated absolute and proportional QALY shortfall, where a greater weight to QALYs may be applied if technologies are indicated for conditions with a high degree of severity.
An important challenge is the uniform assessment of burden of disease. iMTA developed a practical tool that can be used to calculate the proportional and the absolute shortfall of a condition. The tool is referred to as the iMTA Disease Burden Calculator (iDBC) and enhances a uniform assessment. An updated version of the iDBC tool has been developed in 2022. This new version includes more recent life tables (2019) and discounting, the latter to conform with the latest NICE methods.
The iDBC is available for the following countries:
- Netherlands
- UK (total population)
- Scotland
- England and Wales
- Germany
- USA
- Spain
- Norway