The most popular software packages for building health-economic models are TreeAge Pro and Microsoft Excel. This page highlights some of the advantages of TreeAge Pro over Excel.
TreeAge Pro is a visual tool. Models are constructed using graphical objects representing treatment strategies, events and outcomes. Based on this graphical structure, TreeAge Pro automatically generates the algorithms required to calculate the model.
In contrast, Excel offers no graphical interface. Instead, the modeler must build from scratch a series of formulas both to specify all aspects of model structure and to carry out the requisite calculations.
Model building often entails a series of structural revisions which, in turn require changes in the formulas needed to calculate the model. In TreeAge Pro, structural revisions are clearly visible on the face of the model and algorithms are automatically revised to accord with the structural changes. The modeler has the option of requiring some or all the structural revisions to be replicated, either throughout the model or in specific areas.
With Excel, the modeler has the burden of not only determining what changes should be made to the model structure, but also determining which of the model's numerous and interdependent formulas require revision.
Click here to see a brief description of a few of the algorithms used in TreeAge Pro.
Because an Excel model has the calculations and model structure mixed together, it is difficult to see what the model actually represents. To do so, you have to dig into rows and columns of formulas to see how they relate. In addition, inconsistencies within a series of formulas are difficult to see.
The visual presentation of events in a tree structure makes it much easier to see the relationship among treatment strategies and events. The model structure is not clouded by series of calculation formulas. Rather, established algorithms are used in a consistent way in all TreeAge Pro models.
TreeAge Pro’s Markov Cohort Output (full) allows you to see the transition of the cohort among the states for each cycle. This can be very useful for verifying and/or debugging a model with complex transitions.
TreeAge Pro extends the ability to analyze models far beyond simple expected value (EV) calculations for different treatment strategies. Click here for more information on TreeAge Pro Analysis Features.
A reasonable criticism of TreeAge Pro in the past has been that not everyone has TreeAge Pro on his/her computer, while nearly everyone already has Excel. TreeAge Pro 2011, R2.0 addresses this with the introduction of the TreeAge Pro Player to be released with TreeAge Pro 2011, Release 2.0.
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