BODE3 Interactive League Table – how to use it

Tuesday, August 22nd, 2017 | dayhi34p | No Comments

Prof Tony Blakely, Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Giorgi Kvizhinadze, Dr Linda Cobiac

Last week we introduced the concept of league tables to compare interventions.  This week we provide a brief ‘user guide’ for our just launched BODE3 Interactive League Table.  We walk through how to pull down tables and graphs of health gain (quality-adjusted life-years; QALYs), health system costs and cost effectiveness for 50+ interventions currently in the interactive league table.

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NZ’s Quitline Service is value-for-money: But how does it compare with other tobacco control actions in a league table?

Monday, August 21st, 2017 | Kate Sloane | 1 Comment

Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Nhung Nghiem, Dr Cristina Cleghorn, Dr Frederieke Sanne van der Deen, Prof Tony Blakely

We have just published a journal article on the cost-effectiveness of NZ’s Quitline service (including its associated promotion in the mass media). The study found that this intervention package is likely to be an effective means to generate health gain, address health inequalities and save costs for the NZ health system. But in this blog we also compare the New Zealand Quitline intervention with other tobacco interventions using our just launched BODE3 Interactive League Table, and find that whilst the Quitline is a good thing to do, much more health gain is possible through other tobacco control interventions.

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NZ’s Environmental Protection Authority in a muddle over weed killer

Wednesday, August 16th, 2017 | dayhi34p | 5 Comments

Prof Alistair Woodward*, A/Prof Andrea t’Mannetje**, Dr Dave McLean**, Prof Jeroen Douwes**, Prof John D Potter** (*Auckland and **Massey Universities)

Last year the New Zealand Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) chose not to accept the assessment of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) that the herbicide glyphosate (the active ingredient in “Roundup”) was a “probable carcinogen”. Instead the EPA commissioned its own report which found that glyphosate is “unlikely to be genotoxic or carcinogenic”, a significant departure from IARC’s conclusion. An investigation by the Green MP Stefan Browning released two weeks ago raises serious questions about the process followed by the EPA. The controversy has been given fresh life by comments made by the Chief Scientist for the Authority, Dr Jacqueline Rowarth. Her attempt to justify what happened gives a muddled account of risk assessment, and misrepresents her own Authority’s publication. In this blog, we explain why it is important to understand the issues raised by the EPA pronouncements on glyphosate and the potential implications for chemical safety more generally. This is now particularly important as the EPA is about to undertake an expanded review of hazardous substances in New Zealand.

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Comparing health interventions in a meaningful way – Introducing the BODE3 Interactive League Table

Monday, August 14th, 2017 | dayhi34p | 2 Comments

Prof. Tony Blakely, Prof. Nick Wilson, Dr. Giorgi Kvizhinadze, Dr. Linda Cobiac

This blog introduces league tables, and more specifically the NZ-specific BODE3 Interactive League Table, for comparing interventions on health gain, cost and cost-effectiveness – and potentially many other things.  A league table is a useful tool for researchers and policy-makers to get an informed ‘first impression’ of what are the best health interventions to give further consideration to investing in, or disinvesting in. Continue reading