TY - JOUR AU - Donaldson, Cam AU - Baker, Rachel AU - Mason, Helen AU - Jones-Lee, Michael AU - Lancsar, Emily AU - Wildman, John AU - Bateman, Ian AU - Loomes, Graham AU - Robinson, Angela AU - Sugden, Robert AU - Prades, Jose Luis Pinto AU - Ryan, Mandy AU - Shackley, Phil AU - Smith, Richard PY - 2011 DA - 2011/01/11 TI - The social value of a QALY: raising the bar or barring the raise? JO - BMC Health Services Research SP - 8 VL - 11 IS - 1 AB - Since the inception of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in England, there have been questions about the empirical basis for the cost-per-QALY threshold used by NICE and whether QALYs gained by different beneficiaries of health care should be weighted equally. The Social Value of a QALY (SVQ) project, reported in this paper, was commissioned to address these two questions. The results of SVQ were released during a time of considerable debate about the NICE threshold, and authors with differing perspectives have drawn on the SVQ results to support their cases. As these discussions continue, and given the selective use of results by those involved, it is important, therefore, not only to present a summary overview of SVQ, but also for those who conducted the research to contribute to the debate as to its implications for NICE. SN - 1472-6963 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-11-8 DO - 10.1186/1472-6963-11-8 ID - Donaldson2011 ER -