Author: Jennifer Bright, MPA, Executive Director, IVI
The promise of a new year offers an opportunity to recall our best moments in 2020 (surely there are a few!) and get excited for what’s ahead.
For IVI, I’ve been thinking about the accomplishments not just in 2020, but in the three years since I joined this vibrant and inquisitive team. We’re proud of our consistent pursuit of solutions to some of the challenging methods questions confronting value assessment. We’re confident that our investment in developing open-source, customizable models is changing the conversation and improving practice. Most of all, we’re energized by our partnership with patients and other stakeholders who are committed to demonstrating that patient perspectives are a cornerstone of value.
One of our 2020 highlights occurred just before COVID-19 became a household name. In February, we convened a summit of key leaders from patient, payer, purchaser, clinician, innovator, and research communities to consider the priorities for improving value assessment. It was an ambitious dialogue that yielded remarkable consensus on a key opportunity for change: improving the methods for prioritizing and representing patient perspectives.
With this patient focus, IVI invested in research and partnerships through the rest of 2020, including:
- Creating a Patient Advisory Council to advise IVI on priority setting and research design;
- Defining common views among employer and patient communities about needed improvements in both the inputs and outputs of value assessment;
- Exploring goal attainment scaling to elicit patient preferences regarding Rheumatoid Arthritis treatment and the application to multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA);
- Prioritizing patient-defined value elements for individuals living with major depressive disorder (MDD) to inform an open-source value assessment model;
- Convening a multi-stakeholder advisory group with robust patient community participation to guide the development of the MDD model; and
- Co-hosting a webinar series with ISPOR showcasing, among other issues, the need for improved diversity in clinical and outcomes research to ensure that COVID treatments (and beyond) account for heterogeneity.
As we look ahead, we are eager to showcase the fruits of all this labor and to advance the conversation about patient-centered value assessment in practical and tangible ways.
In 2021, IVI will emphasize next-generation approaches that improve value assessment, including open-source models, prioritizing and quantifying patient preferences, and MCDA. We will engage with public stakeholders on the draft IVI-MDD model, discuss the real-world implementation of patient preference methods, and lay the groundwork for defining patient impacts that improve research and measurement.
The power of collaboration is the vital ingredient truly making 2021 the year of the patient. Thanks to those who contribute their ideas, passion, and expertise to our work. And welcome to those who share our goals for positive change and high-value health care for all.
