Economic Evaluations of Digital Health Technologies

This technical report presents a targeted review of economic evaluations related to digital health technologies (DHTs). The review assesses the alignment of these evaluations with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Evidence Standards Framework, specifically focusing on Standards 17 and 18, which pertain to budget impact analyses (BIA) and cost-effectiveness analyses (CEA). The review identifies seven articles that examine economic evaluations of unique DHTs, noting that six of these articles reported CEAs while only one reported a BIA. The findings indicate that the majority of reviewed CEAs met at least half of the NICE CEA Evidence Standards criteria, with specific criteria such as 'Synthesis' and 'Problem' being universally reported. The report also discusses the implications of these evaluations for determining the economic impact of DHTs on healthcare systems, highlighting the need for further systematic reviews to better characterize the scope of DHT economic evaluations.