ABSTRACT
Decision modeling provides an excellent framework for developing estimates of these outcomes in a flexible analytic framework that allows the investigator to test many alternative assumptions and scenarios. There are a wide variety of mathematical modeling types available to the modeler to represent disease, treatments and costs and a tradeoff exists between complexity of the process being modeled and the type of model that should be used to represent the problem. In general, the simplest modeling technique that accurately represents the components of the problem according to a clinical expert is sufficient. This chapter provides a brief introduction to the many methods of constructing decision models for the purpose of pharmacoeconomic analyses. After describing the basic methods of decision analysis, basic branch and node decision trees are described in the context of an actual pharmacoeconomic problem.
