Matching-Adjusted Indirect Comparison
A method comparing treatments from separate trials with different populations by reweighting one trial's patient data to match the other trial's reported characteristics.
Encyclopaedia
Explore comprehensive, evidence-informed explanations of key health economics concepts, including their development, application and relationships to other concepts. Published entries are validated through human expert review.
Matrix Algebra
The branch of mathematics concerned with the representation and manipulation of matrices and the operations performed on them.
Matrix Inversion
The process of finding a matrix that, when multiplied by the original matrix, produces the identity matrix.
Matrix Multiplication
An operation that combines two compatible matrices by calculating the dot products of their rows and columns.
Maximin Criterion
A social welfare decision rule judging an allocation by the wellbeing of the worst-off group, seeking to maximise that minimum level.
Maximum Likelihood Estimation
A method estimating a model's parameters by finding the values that make the observed data most probable.
Maximum Likelihood Fitting
The process of applying maximum likelihood estimation to determine the parameter values of a chosen model that best fit observed data.
MCDA in HTA
The application of multi-criteria decision analysis within assessment, weighing multiple factors such as benefit, cost, and equity together explicitly.
Mean
A central tendency measure calculated as the sum of a set of values divided by the number of values.
Mean Absolute Error
A measure of average prediction error magnitude between predicted and actual values, calculated without regard to whether errors are positive or negative.
Mean Squared Error
A measure of the average squared difference between predicted and actual values, penalising larger errors more heavily due to squaring.
Measurement Error
Inaccuracy in a recorded value relative to its true value, either random, adding noise, or systematic, consistently over- or under-estimating in one direction.
Mechanism Design
A branch of economic theory concerned with designing rules, such as auctions or payment systems, that produce good outcomes despite strategic, privately informed participants.
Median
A central tendency measure representing the middle value of an ordered dataset, dividing it into two equal halves.
Mediation Analysis
A statistical approach examining whether an exposure's effect on an outcome operates through an intermediate variable, called a mediator, rather than directly.
Medical Loss Ratio
A regulatory measure requiring insurers to spend a minimum percentage of premium revenue on claims and quality improvement, rather than administration or profit.
Medication Error Rate
A measure of how frequently mistakes occur in prescribing, dispensing, or administering medications within a healthcare organisation.
Medication Possession Ratio
A quantitative adherence measure calculated as the proportion of days within a period a patient had the medication available, based on refill data.
Memorylessness
The defining property of a Markov process that future transition probabilities depend only on the present state, with no influence from the path taken.
Meta-Analysis
A statistical technique combining the quantitative results of multiple independent studies addressing the same question into a single, more precise estimate.