In panel-based studies of health burden, a lay description –a vignette – is used to represent the health impact of the condition of interest on a hypothetical affected individual. Health professionals or representatives of the general population then give the health status of that affected individual a score, or panel-based disability weight, that ranges between zero – representing no disability or perfect health – and one – representing disability equivalent to death.3,5 The limitations of such a panel-based approach include the uncertain generalizability of the resultant weights to different geographical and socioeconomic contexts, the difficulty of developing vignettes to represent complex and varied health impacts and the limited focus on the time-course of any disability.4,5