Understanding ICER’s New Life Years Metric

ICER (the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review) revealed a new metric in 2018: evLYG (equal value of life years gained). The metric is intended as an alternative to the controversial QALY (quality-adjusted life year). Disability advocacy groups and payers in the US raised concerns over the QALY measure being used to discriminate against certain populations, including the elderly, disabled, and patients suffering from chronic disease. This recent article, published in ISPOR’s Value & Outcomes Spotlight, aims to compare the new evLYG metric to QALY.

The authors remark, “In general, treatments with greater life extension and where the quality of life of surviving patients is low will see the greatest potential benefit from the evLY metric compared to the QALY metric. This would potentially include certain treatments for cancer (particularly those affecting younger patients) and gene therapies for debilitating, deadly diseases, while diseases where treatments only, or primarily, improve quality of life (eg, migraine, depression among cancer patients) will see minimal or no benefit.” Read more here.

(Source: O’Day & Mezzio, ISPOR, 2021)