HEOR has focused mainly on single technology assessment (STA) and has evolved excellent methods for it, with ISPOR having been a leading organization in this field. However, while use of HEOR has been strong for real world healthcare decisions for single technologies in some countries, it is weaker in others. And many healthcare decisions, especially outside of those for drugs and devices, do not rely much, if at all, on HEOR work, even though health economic considerations and patient-centered evidence are still very relevant. Why not? How can we improve the useability and applicability of HEOR?
ISPOR’s Health Science Policy Council (HSPC) is currently working on a white paper that will address these questions and, in doing so, help guide ISPOR’s priorities for emerging areas of focus, content development, interaction with other disciplines and stakeholders, and future methodological work. Areas being reviewed and discussed include lack of understanding or trust in HEOR and how to improve it, concerns about HEOR’s relevance to specific decisions and reasons why it may not be, and areas for broadening HEOR approaches to be more useful to many healthcare decisions.
This Forum session will feature the draft findings of an HSPC working group on this topic, including the observed challenges to HEOR use, further opportunities in HEOR use for STA, the role of health system organization incentives in healthcare decisions, implementation considerations, and the need to adapt methods and data collection to better inform decisions in areas such as disease management and public health.
