Alexandria, VA – September 28, 2023 – The Innovation and Value Initiative (IVI), a non-profit research organization committed to advancing the science, practice, and use of health technology assessment (HTA) in healthcare, responds to the ICER 2023 Value Assessment Framework.

While IVI appreciates ICER’s efforts to improve patient engagement through initiatives like the Patient Council, its framework lacks some fundamental aspects of meaningful patient engagement. To achieve true partnership with patients and patient organizations, we must go beyond “consistent engagement” and involve patients as co-leaders and genuine partners throughout the HTA process.

“Incorporating health equity in to the framework means looking beyond clinical trial diversity and subpopulation evaluations – it’s crucial to agather additional information on health equity and how it can continuously improve HTA processes, data, and methods,” says Jason Spangler, IVI’s Chief Executive Officer. “Expanding the testing of new methodological approaches are critical to incorporating components of patient-centered value.”

Additionally, measuring accountability in this work is crucial to guarantee that the principle of “no value without equity” is upheld. Health equity means ensuring everyone has a just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This includes eliminating avoidable health disparities due to race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other social determinants of health.

There also continues to be a need for clearer procedures to incorporate non-traditional data, such as personal experiences, and to handle situations where quantitative data is unavailable. We applaud ICER for exploring the Generalized Risk-Adjusted Cost-Effectiveness (GRACE) framework, but it is unfortunate that the ICER framework does not include dynamic pricing.

To read IVI’s full comments, click here.

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About IVI
The Innovation and Value Initiative (IVI) is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, non-profit research organization dedicated to advancing the science and improving the practice of health technology assessment through development of novel methods and the creation and application of enhanced health technology assessment models to support local decision-making needs in healthcare.

Contact: Smita Sanwardeker
Phone: 267.909.7661
E-Mail: smita.sanwardeker@thevalueinitiative.org