Incremental cost-effectiveness plane.

Incremental cost-effectiveness plane showing Monte Carlo estimates of incremental costs and benefits of using apixaban for stroke prevention versus adjusted-dose warfarin. For each one of the 10,000 iterations, values for parameters are randomly selected from their distributions and an ICER is calculated. Points falling above the dotted line have an ICER of >$50,000 per QALY and those falling below the line have an ICER of <$50,000 per QALY. Apixaban was found to be a dominant strategy (less costly, more effective) in 57% of the simulations and cost-effective in 98% of simulations at willingness-to-pay thresholds of $50,000 per QALY. Four thousand of the 10,000 iterations, selected at random, are depicted. ICER  =  incremental cost-effectiveness ratio; QALYs  =  quality-adjusted life-years.