Using decision-analytic models wisely.

Using Decision-Analytic Models Wisely In this issue, Fairman and Motheral address an aspect of validation of decision-analytic models. 1) In their research, Fairman and Motheral first replicated 2) published decision-analytic models of Helicobacter pylori eradication, and subsequently reran the models replacing original model assumptions with empirical data from a multipayer claims database. They found that key assumptions of the original models were not consistent with the empirical data from the database, which consequently led to different conclusions being supported when the models were rerun. 1) In the face of these results, one might question the value of the original models.