Accelerating Cures. Have we tried everything else?

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else. Winston Churchill

As is often the case, when it rains it pours and I will be joining  The Commonwealth Fund, Healthcare: the Journal of Delivery Science and Innovation, and The University of Pennsylvania at the National Press Club this week participating live as a distinguished panel discusses how leading policymakers, health system executives, and payers are crafting innovative incentive structures to support value-based models of care—and considering how insights from behavioral economics are shaping new models of provider incentives.

You can visit an educational portal for a more front row seat to what is being discussed and workshoped at a variety of conferences. Let's face it--it isn't always practical to travel to meetings or conferences. The backlog of blog worthy topics seemed like a great opportunity to introduce deeper dives in a new digital media discussion forum. Lessons and discussions will launch soon (and individually). You can sign-up for information about releases here.

My intention is to share summaries and highlights within the blog but I don't assume we all have equal exposure (or interest) in all topics. Many of the conferences I attend provide unique opportunities for specific skill development or benchmarks within topics of health policy, HEOR, clinical science, research, or writing about medicine. If you want to roll up your sleeves and add a few new skills to your toolbox, maybe a deeper dive is just what you need.

ISPOR 2016...to be continued

I returned from the 21st annual international meeting of the International Society For Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research, or ISPOR, with a full inbox, great networking, and much strategic planning and writing on the agenda. I will be sharing insights from a variety of plenary sessions, workshops, forums, symposia, and educational sessions. 

The plenary sessions opened Monday morning with advances and forward thinking objectives from the 20,000 global membership--reaffirming accomplishments and the mission of ISPOR. Guided as a member led society with a role as strategic innovator, collaborator, influencer, and convener--if you work in health economics, policy, or science you have seen remarkable advances in technology, breakthroughs in medical devices, combined with multiple stakeholder interest in evidence, cost, policy, and value frameworks. Our dynamic role in healthcare emphasizes the importance of possessing a solid foundation in health economics and pharmacoeconomics. 

Not everyone needs to be a health economist or health policy expert to appreciate theoretical frameworks addressing these important issues. ISPOR stimulates innovation through dialogue, deliberation on value-frameworks, networking and a variety of stakeholder perspectives integral to sound decision making. 

Many colleagues share articles on LinkedIn describing the pros and cons of fast-tracking therapies for diseases with unmet medical need. Context matters and consideration of different view points is essential. Patient advocacy deserves a seat at the table as we attempt to balance patient safety and unmet medical need.

Last summer the 21st Century Cures Act was passed with bipartisan support. Eleanor M. Perfecto, PhD, MS from the National Health Council presented a few highlights. You can click here for more details from H.R.6. I get it. We are all busy but I think we can also pause and examine facts prior to passing around partially informed opinions that can distort or mislead. 

More recently the senate innovations act, pieced together from 19 separate bills slowly approved by the Health, Education, Labor, And Pensions (HELP) committee, as a companion to the 21st Century Cure Bill has been featured in the media.​

Important narratives are lost in the noise. Healthcare and innovation is at a crossroads. How do we balance patient safety and unmet medical need? There are valid arguments regarding FDA approvals based on less rigorous data but how do we then consider patient outcomes and experiences--real world evidence? Non-traditional study designs are limited to correlation but how should we balance innovative approaches with efficacy and efficiency. And perhaps most importantly, how do we select valid surrogate measures to speed drug approval for patients most in need?

​I hope you will follow along as the conversation continues...

Thoughtful discussions about content development and outcomes analytics that apply the principles and frameworks of health policy and economics to persistent and perplexing health and health care problems...