Advancement in the area of value assessment in health care took the spotlight in several discussions featured recently at the 2019 national conference of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) in New Orleans.
“This year’s ISPOR conference was truly remarkable from the standpoint of learning all the innovative and novel scientific approaches underway to measuring value in our health care system,” said PhRMA Foundation President Eileen Cannon. “The Foundation is excited about supporting the best and brightest in this field that is ushering in the next generation of value assessment in health care and bringing all stakeholder voices to light.”
Cannon added that with ongoing research and additional initiatives on the horizon, the perspective of value assessment is expanding from traditional methods and realizing a future with multiple ways to assess value that is transparent, iterative, and patient-centered.
A special session at ISPOR moderated by Sachin Kamal-Bahl, PhD, of SKB Consulting Inc., featured reports from leaders of the Foundation’s four Centers of Excellence, which have been established by the University of Maryland, Baltimore, University of Colorado, Tufts Medical Center and Altarum/V-BID Health. The centers are using new and diverse approaches to capture and measure value.
Speaking on behalf of University of Maryland’s Patient-Driven Values in Healthcare Evaluation (PAVE), Susan dosReis, PhD, of the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in Baltimore, Maryland noted, “PAVE’s work reaches deep into patient communities for feedback and input on patient priorities in health care. We are receiving very positive responses from patients who feel it’s the first time they’ve ever been asked what they value in treatment and the many other considerations that influence their treatment decisions. We are turning a corner here in the quest to measure value. It’s an exciting time.”
Jonathan D. Campbell, PhD, of the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Aurora, Colorado and Director for pharmaceutical Value (pValue) – headquartered within the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus, said the center’s work is making inroads in novel value assessment beyond the scope of cost-effectiveness. “Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is a method that can encompass other values – it’s a broad-spectrum novel mechanism of action! The measurement of value has not traditionally considered impacts such as the burden on caregivers and how loved ones are affected by the success or failure of a treatment. There are many different languages in the world of value measurement. Our work brings a common structure and voice to all languages.”
“By reviewing cost effective analyses we hope to be able to examine how non-traditional elements of value such as financial risk protection, insurance value, productivity and others measure up alongside conventional cost per Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) ratios,” said Peter J. Neumann, ScD, of Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts with the Center of Enhanced Value Assessment (CEVA). “Elevating the patient voice into this research and debate is also critical and will provide a view into an experience nearly all of us share – being a health care consumer.”
George Miller, PhD, of Altarum, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan and with the Research Consortium for Health Care Value Assessment, spoke to its research to identify low-value and high-value health care which could create awareness that impacts not only cost savings to the health care system but enhance the quality of care some patients are receiving. “Increasing patient access to appropriate care while eliminating unnecessary tests, procedures and therapies makes for a more efficient and value-based health care system,” noted Miller. “Value assessment research has reached a new frontier that with practical application can positively impact all stakeholders.”
The PhRMA Foundation’s Value Assessment Initiative is designed to improve patient outcomes while reducing inefficiencies in health care by developing better methods for assessing the value of medicines and health care services. Through its funding, the Foundation is encouraging more evidence-based research on how the true value of medicines can be accurately defined and quantified. It was launched in 2017 and includes funding for the efforts of individual researchers in addition to the establishment of the four Value Assessment Centers of Excellence.
For more information about each of the Centers of Excellence, please visit:
- University of Maryland – PAVE
- Altarum/V-BID Health — Research Consortium for Health Care Value Assessment (Value Consortium)
- Tufts Medical Center — Center for Enhanced Value Assessment (CEVA)
- University of Colorado — Pharmaceutical Value (pValue)
For more information about the PhRMA Foundation’s Value Assessment Initiative, visit our web page.
