NICE launches CHEERS-AI to enhance transparency in AI economic evaluations

NICE has introduced CHEERS-AI, a reporting standard that enhances transparency in economic evaluations of AI technologies to support informed decision-making and improve patient access.

Developed as part of the EU-funded Next Generation Health Technology Assessment (HTx) project, CHEERS-AI is a new reporting standard designed to enhance transparency and consistency in the health economic evaluations of AI technologies. By improving the communication of cost-effectiveness analyses for AI-enabled healthcare interventions, CHEERS-AI aims to support informed decision-making and help patients gain faster access to promising AI-driven treatments.

A recent systematic review titled Economic evaluations of artificial intelligence-based healthcare interventions: a systematic literature review of best practices in their conduct and reporting revealed significant variability in the quality of published economic evaluations related to AI-based health interventions. Key limitations identified in this review included inconsistent input data quality, potential conflicts of interest, insufficient transparency in reporting, and a lack of clear information regarding AI functionality. These gaps raise concerns about the reliability and interpretability of current evaluations, which are crucial for informing reimbursement and access decisions within health systems. This review underscores the urgent need for tailored reporting standards that can enhance transparency in this emerging field.

In response to these challenges, NICE has developed the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards for Interventions that Use Artificial Intelligence (CHEERS-AI) to assist both study authors and reviewers. Building on the original 28 standards from the previously published CHEERS-2022, CHEERS-AI adds eight elements specifically addressing AI-related factors, as well as 10 new standards tailored to AI-driven interventions. These additional standards encompass critical areas such as user autonomy in AI deployment, the adaptability of AI technologies over time, and detailed specifications about the development of AI components. By implementing this comprehensive checklist, CHEERS-AI aims to ensure transparent and reproducible reporting of AI-specific details. As noted by Jamie Elvidge (Senior Scientific Adviser, NICE), this “supports the interpretation and comparison of such studies by reviewers and decision-makers" with the aim to “raise the standard of economic evaluation reporting as AI’s presence in healthcare grows”.

The CHEERS-AI checklist has been endorsed by ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research, and has been added to the Equator Network’s list of reporting checklists. According to ISPOR,

“CHEERS-AI will help decision makers and reviewers to understand important AI-specific details of an intervention, and any implications for the economic evaluations methods used and cost-effectiveness conclusions.”

CHEERS-AI is expected to improve the quality of economic evaluations for AI-based interventions, ultimately supporting health systems and policymakers in making informed reimbursement decisions. With the ongoing integration of AI in healthcare, standards like CHEERS-AI provide essential guidance to ensure that evaluation practices align with the unique complexities of AI technologies. Further insights on this topic are available through a webinar delivered in collaboration with ISPOR and the University of York.