How should health systems decide whether the benefits of new medicines are worth the costs? Health economic thresholds are increasingly used to guide reimbursement decisions, yet the basis for these thresholds and their real-world consequences remain the subject of intense debate. This GÖG-Colloquium, hosted by the Austrian National Public Health Institute and organised by the Pharmacoeconomics Department, brings together researchers and policymakers to explore the methodological foundations and policy implications of threshold-based decision-making for pharmaceuticals.
- Date: 20 January 2026, 5.30 - 7.00 CET
- online via Zoom
- Registration via https://survey.goeg.at/index.php/562551?lang=en
The colloquium will open with a presentation by Christoph Strohmaier (Austrian Institute for HTA), who will outline the theoretical underpinnings and practical applications of thresholds in economic evaluation, drawing on recent findings from an AIHTA report. James Lomas (University of York) will then discuss how opportunity costs have informed threshold estimation in the English NHS, focusing on NICE and broader resource allocation mechanisms. Huseyin Naci (London School of Economics and Political Science) will present new evidence on the population-health consequences of NICE’s reimbursement decisions, based on a recent Lancet study. The session will be facilitated by Maximilian Salcher-Konrad of the Pharmacoeconomics department.
The session will close with a moderated discussion and Q&A, exploring how other countries—including Austria—might learn from the English experience in applying thresholds to support fair and effective decision-making in health care.
More information: https://goeg.at/Coll_Health_Economic
Last update: 11 January 2026