Discrete Event Simulation for Health Technology Assessment

21Introduction

Although the DES toolbox contains a fairly broad range of tools and it

imposes relatively few constraints on the modeler, it is still only one of many

methods for modeling a problem, and it is important that it be rmly viewed

as such. It would be just another ludicrous case of the law of the instrument

if modelers trying to address HTA problems were to begin to see every one of

them as requiring a DES. For example, the assessment of a set of antineoplas-

tic interventions where the only outcome of relevance is postponing cancer

recurrence and, possibly, prolonging life may be fully addressable using a

partitioned survival model (Jackson etal. 2010; Latimer 2011) with paramet-

ric failure-time equations that incorporate known ...