PhD defence Katja Christina Heinz

Keywords: Health Economics, Health Technology Assessment, Preference Research, Chronic Inflammatory Skin Conditions

"Clear research for clear skin: investigating health economic implications and preferences to address unmet care needs in chronic inflammatory skin conditions"

Chronic inflammatory skin conditions, including atopic dermatitis and hidradenitis suppurativa, can substantially reduce quality of life. Despite the development of novel therapies, literature reports unmet care needs. Potential reasons could be that therapies are not accessible or that they are not aligned with patients’ preferences and needs.

To improve the understanding of health economic implications, this dissertation investigated the cost-effectiveness of an emerging atopic dermatitis treatment and presented an overview of studies in this field. A systematic review of quantitative treatment preference research in atopic dermatitis informed the conduct of a discrete choice experiment, a certain method to elicit treatment preferences. The same method was used to investigate preferences for surgical procedures in hidradenitis suppurativa, helping to better understand what matters to patients when making treatment decisions in these two skin conditions.

The insights that were generated within this dissertation aim to support different stakeholder groups in making informed decisions and addressing unmet care needs in atopic dermatitis and hidradenitis suppurativa.

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