28 June 2026, 8:35 AM – 12:00 PM (local time)
Faculty
- Norah Crossnohere, PhD – The Ohio State University, United States
- Ilene Hollin, PhD – Temple University, United States
- Semra Ozdemir, PhD – Duke University, United States
Course Overview
This course will introduce participants to the fundamentals of measuring preferences in health and describe how these methods can support decision making and health policy. The course will explore the role of preference assessment in understanding what matters most to patients and stakeholders, and how these insights have been used to inform clinical care, guideline development, and regulatory decisions.
Participants will learn about commonly used approaches for eliciting preferences, such as best-worst scaling and discrete-choice experiments. The course will provide an introduction to best practices to support the design, conduct, and analysis of preference studies. Through interactive activities and discussion, participants will experience the respondent perspective, practice developing preference questions and instruments, and review examples of how preference data are analyzed and applied in real-world contexts.
Learning Objectives
Participants will learn how to:
- Identify common stated preference methods and determine when and how to apply them appropriately in health decision-making contexts
- Explain how preference measurement complements other pillars of medical decision-making science, including decision modeling, stakeholder engagement, and decision psychology, and identify opportunities for integration
- Describe the key steps in conducting a preference experiment, including attribute development, experimental design, and survey implementation
- Interpret preference study results to inform clinical, policy, and research decision-making
Course Format
This course will combine lecture, interactive exercises, and discussion.
Participants will complete a brief preference experiment to experience the respondent perspective and understand the role of preference measurement in patient-centered care, guideline development, and health policy. The course will introduce quantitative methods for eliciting and analyzing health-related preferences, including stated-preference approaches such as discrete-choice experiments and best-worst scaling.
Participants will also be introduced to the steps involved in designing preference studies, including defining research questions, conducting formative work, developing attributes and levels, and constructing experimental designs. A hands-on group activity will allow participants to apply these concepts by developing a preference elicitation task based on a health-related research question.
Participant Requirements
No prior experience or software is required for this course.
Participants will receive an introductory reading on preference assessment prior to the session, along with a curated reading list including foundational articles, practical resources for designing and analyzing preference studies, best practices for study design and reporting, and examples of applied preference research.