Roberta Ara BSc Hons (Sheffield Hallam), MSc Hons (Sheffield)
Address:
HEDS, ScHARR
The University of Sheffield
Regent Court, 30 Regent Street
Sheffield S1 4DA
Tel: (+44) (0)114 222 0788
Fax: (+44) (0)114 272 4095
E-mail: r.m.ara@sheffield.ac.uk
Room: 1011
Research interests
- Assessing cost-effectiveness of new treatments for NICE
- Cost-effectiveness modelling methods
- Arthritis, obesity, cardiovascular disease
- Health related quality of life:
* Issues involved in populating models with utilities
* Mapping between preference-based instruments
Teaching Interests
I deliver lectures and tutorials on the MSc Health Economics and Decision Modelling. I am joint co-ordinator for the module Cost-effectiveness Modelling for Health Technology Assessment and supervise MSc dissertation projects. I also lecture on the short course "Using Utility Data in Cost-Effectiveness Models".
PhD Supervision
- Eun-Ju Kim: Optimal cost-effectiveness resource allocation modelling of antihypertensive drugs (http://www.shef.ac.uk/scharr/sections/heds/staff/kim_e)
Current Projects
Scientific Advice Programme for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
Principal investigator: R Ara
Co-investigators: R Akehurst, A Wailoo (Funding body: NICE; 2009/12)
Policy Research Unit in Economic Evaluation of Health and Care Prevention (EEPRU)
PI: John Brazier. (Funding body: DoH; 2011/14)
Applied: Obesity; Methodological: PROMS
NICE Technical Support Document: The use of health related quality of life data in economic models
Co-Investigator: Allan Wailoo (Funding body: NICE; 2010/11)
NICE Technical Support Document: The appropriateness of regressions in health technology assessments submitted to NICE
Co-Investigator: Ben Kearns (Funding body: NICE; 2011/12)
Key publications
- Ara R, Brazier JE. Using health state utility values from the general population to approximate baselines in decision analytic models when condition-specific data are not available. Value in Health 2011;14(4):539-45.
- Ara R, Brazier J. Estimating health state utility values for comorbid health conditions. Value in Health 2010;13(7):A334-A335.
- Poole CD, Lebmeier M, Ara R, Rafia R, Currie CJ. Estimation of health care costs as a function of disease severity in people with psoriatic arthritis in the UK. Rheumatology (Oxford) 2010;49(10):1949-56.
- Ara R, Brazier J. Populating an economic model with health state utility values: moving towards better practice. Value in Health 2010;13(5):509-18.
- Ara R, Pandor A, Stevens J, Rees A, Rafia R. Early high dose lipid-lowering therapy to avoid cardiac events – A systematic review and economic evaluation. Health Technology Assessment 2009 Jul;13(34):1-74, 75-118.
- Ara R, Brazier J. Predicting the SF-6D preference-based index using the eight mean SF-36 health dimension scores: estimating preference-based health related utilities when patient level data are not available. Value in Health 2008;12(2):346-53.